Skip to main content

Eurasianet

Main Menu

  • Regions
  • Topics
  • Media
  • About
  • Search
  • Newsletter
  • русский
  • Support us
X

Caucasus

Armenia
Azerbaijan
Georgia

Central Asia

Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan

Conflict Zones

Abkhazia
Nagorno Karabakh
South Ossetia

Eastern Europe

Belarus
Moldova
Russia
The Baltics
Ukraine

Eurasian Fringe

Afghanistan
China
EU
Iran
Mongolia
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States
X

Environment

Economy

Politics

Kazakhstan's Bloody January 2022
Kyrgyzstan 2020 unrest

Security

Society

American diplomats in Central Asia
Arts and Culture
Coronavirus
Student spotlight
X

Visual Stories

Podcast
Video

Blogs

Tamada Tales
The Bug Pit

Podcasts

EurasiaChat
Expert Opinions
The Central Asianist
X
You can search using keywords to narrow down the list.

Tajikistan sentences journalist to 12 years in jail

Khairullo Mirsaidov’s case has garnered little attention from the international community

Jul 11, 2018
Khairullo Mirsaidov (via his Facebook page) Khairullo Mirsaidov (via his Facebook page)

A court in northern Tajikistan has sentenced a local journalist and comedian to 12 years in a high-security prison on embezzlement charges that supporters say were fabricated.

The trial in Khujand city court of Khairullo Mirsaidov, who worked extensively with overseas donor organizations, closed on July 11 to widespread indifference among the international diplomatic community, which has long given up pressing Tajikistan on its human rights commitments.

Judge Jurahon Rahmon was cited by Asia-Plus as saying in his summing-up that if Mirsaidov had paid back 124,000 somoni ($13,500) worth of alleged damages, he would have avoided a prison sentence. Repayment of those purportedly purloined funds was included in the sentence. State prosecutor Raufhon Alizoda had asked the court for a 13-year prison term.

Mirsaidov was also charged with forging documents and providing false testimony.

Few independent observers who have followed the case are in any doubt that Mirsaidov is paying the price for his high-visibility conflict with well-placed bureaucrats in his local Sughd region. The trouble began in November, when Mirsaidov published an open letter to President Emomali Rahmon detailing an ongoing confrontation with those officials.

The original dispute stemmed from claims that Sughd regional officials were exploiting their sponsorship of the competitive comedy troupe led by Mirsaidov to cream expenses off the top.

On December 5, Mirsaidov was arrested at the behest of the Sughd regional prosecutors’ office and slapped with a number of offenses. Despite him presenting no obvious threat to the public or a flight risk, a court ordered Mirsaidov be kept in custody for two months pending investigations. That preventative pre-trial detention was later extended.

In his final appeal to the court, Mirsaidov reportedly said that he had only become active in the comedy team, which participated in a post-Soviet comedy league called KVN, for the prestige.

"I organized the KVN team so as to promote the image of Tajikistan in Russia and in other countries, and I succeeded. I did not ask for any position, rank, money for my efforts,” he was quoted as saying by Asia-Plus.

In perhaps the most dispiriting aspect of this story, Mirsaidov’s plight has also been largely disregarded by local nongovernmental organizations. The most committed and principled activists have long been either run out of the country or cowed into submission. Those that remain have steered clear of the case.

Mirsaidov is a well-known figure in Tajikistan’s diplomatic circles. Beyond his reporting work, he has also been involved in projects financed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, the United Nations Development Program and the UK’s foreign aid arm, the Department for International Development.

That notwithstanding, there has been a deafening silence from the entire foreign diplomatic community, which has taken a leaf from local activists and pursued a path of complete non-confrontation with the increasingly despotic authorities. The U.S. Embassy, which has the most weighty presence among Western missions in Tajikistan, has been notable for its apparent indifference and has preferred instead to give prominence to its extensive cooperation with the Tajik armed forces.

International advocacy groups like Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists have been more forthright.

HRW Central Asia researcher Steve Swerdlow described Mirsaidov’s case as a “travesty of justice.”

Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all, and influenced by none.

Popular

Kazakhstan: Swathes of land confiscated from Nazarbayev’s brother ahead of vote
Georgian authorities face backlash over Russian purchases
Nini Gabritchidze
Armenian banks record mega profits, but the economy doesn't feel it
Arshaluis Mgdesyan

Eurasianet

  • About
  • Team
  • Contribute
  • Republishing
  • Privacy Policy
  • Corrections
  • Contact
Eurasianet © 2023