Tajikistan’s Supreme Court has handed prison terms to three well-known public figures for writing, editing, and publishing a book that highlights some of the challenges faced by those living in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic, which the authorities ordered cleared from bookstores, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service reported.
Several sources told RFE/RL on February 23 that the court sentenced Abdukhalil Kholiqzoda to 6 1/2 years, Abduqodir Rustam to 4 1/2 years, and Suhrob Rajabzoda to one year in prison after finding them guilty of inciting hatred.
There was no official announcement of the verdicts and sentences as the trial was held behind closed doors within a detention center in Dushanbe.
Lawyers and relatives of the three defendants refused to comment, while Supreme Court officials confirmed to RFE/RL that the trial session was held on February 22, but they could not comment, saying the trial judge was not available for comment.
It remains unclear if Kholiqzoda, Rustam, and Rajabzoda will appeal the sentences.
The men were arrested in August 2023 and went on trial on January 19.
The charges against them stemmed from their roles in publishing a book titled Stories Of My Life that, among other things, focused on everyday developments in modern Tajikistan, including corruption, migration, and cultural challenges faced in the Central Asian country.
The authorities confiscated all copies of the book from bookstores after the three men were arrested. The book’s author is businessman Kholiqzoda, while Rustam edited it, and Rajabzoda’s Er-Graf publishing house published it.
Self-exiled Tajik intellectuals and opposition figures condemned the arrests and the sentencing of the three men, calling the case against them a crackdown on freedom of expression.
President Emomali Rahmon, who has run Tajikistan for almost 30 years, has been criticized by international human rights groups over his administration’s policies toward independent media, religious freedoms, civil society, and political pluralism.
In recent years, several Tajik journalists, rights activists, and opposition politicians have been handed lengthy prison terms on charges seen by rights groups as trumped-up and politically motivated.
