Tajik opposition MP arrested for coup attempt

“MP Saiddjafar Usmonzoda was stripped of his immunity and arrested at the request of the Prosecutor General,” Khovar reported.

The arrested lawmaker had previously run for president and is the only member of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan sitting in the lower house of parliament, which is dominated by Rakhmon’s party and other parties largely loyal to the president.

Usmonzoda is accused of plotting a coup with the support of two organizations branded as “terrorists” and banned by the Tajik authorities: the National Alliance of Tajikistan (PMT) and the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan.

The state news agency reported that Usmonzoda discussed the participation of “more than 3,000 fighters” from Jamaat Ansarullah, a jihadist group active on the Afghan border, in a phone call with a PMT leader in September 2021.

The “criminal plan” was to take control of law enforcement and military buildings, “seize weapons and overthrow the government by force,” the state news agency reported.

It says that Usmonzoda promised to gather his supporters and asked a “representative of a foreign country” for $10 million.

Khovar reported that Usmonzoda was arrested as a suspect, while claiming that his “guilt is fully proven by the evidence in the criminal case.”

Tajikistan was devastated by a bloody civil war between 1992 and 1997, in which pro-government forces loyal to Rahmon faced a mix of Islamist, democratic and regional factions.

Rahmon’s supporters credit him with reconciling the divided country. Portraits of the president can be seen everywhere and he bears the official title “Founder of Peace and National Unity”.

In the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, Tajikistan ranks 155th out of 180 countries.

bk-am/dt/lth