psychological violence, marital rape and the Tajikistani authorities had placed him on sexual assault. an Interpol wanted list. Sadi Rakhmatov had TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT been charged in Tajikistan with “facilitating mercenaries”, a crime which carries a 15- In February, an Action Plan introduced as year sentence. part of a new strategy to reform the criminal On 25 March, independent lawyer and justice system came into force. It provides for Chairman of the Tajik Centre in Moscow, Izzat independent monitoring of detention Amon (also known as Izatullo Kholov), went facilities, as well as improved complaint missing. Two days later the Tajikistani Interior mechanisms for people in penitentiary Ministry announced that he was in detention institutions and the development of in the capital, Dushanbe, having been independent investigation mechanisms for extradited from Russia. Izzat Amon had deaths in custody. repeatedly criticized the Tajikistani Only a small number of torture and other ill- government for failing to protect the rights of treatment cases continued to be reported to Tajikistani migrants in Russia. In October the the authorities. In March the legal assistance Dushanbe City Court sentenced him to prison group of the NGO Coalition against Torture for nine years for fraud. reported that it had documented at least 38 On 1 June, Mirzo Hojimuhammad, a former cases of torture and other ill-treatment in the member of the arbitrarily banned Islamic course of 2020, noting that this represented Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), was a fraction of the actual number of cases. sentenced to five years in prison for In June, three police officers were “membership of a banned extremist sentenced to between 10 and 13 years’ organization”. He had been working as a imprisonment for the torture of Hasan doctor in Russia for the past two years and Yodgorov in 2017. He “confessed” to a returned to Tajikistan in February for a visit. murder after being tortured with beatings and He was first placed under travel restrictions electric shocks for several days by police in and then arrested in May. His conviction was Tursunzoda, western Tajikistan. He spent six reportedly based on unspecified posts on months in pre-trial detention before the social media. In 2020 he had delivered a charges were dropped and he was released media interview criticizing the authorities’ late in May 2018, when another suspect was recognition of the Covid-19 pandemic. arrested. Hasan Yodgorov reported the In January, independent journalist Daler torture the day after his release. Two of the Sharipov was released on the expiry of his police officers fell under amnesties and their sentence. In April 2020, he had been found sentences were shortened as a result. guilty of “inciting religious discord” and FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION sentenced to one year’s imprisonment for unofficially publishing and disseminating his The authorities continued to suppress dissertation on Islam. opposition activists and government critics by In October, Buzurgmekhr Yorov’s sentence sentencing them to lengthy prison terms on was reduced by four years under an amnesty th politically motivated charges, often requesting declared to celebrate the 30 anniversary of their extradition from countries of exile and the country’s independence. Buzurgmekhr harassing their relatives in Tajikistan and Yorov, a lawyer, was sentenced to 28 years’ abroad. imprisonment for having represented several On 13 January, Sadi Rakhmatov, the members of the banned IRPT. brother-in-law of Sharofiddin Gadoev, the deputy leader of the arbitrarily banned opposition movement Group 24, was released from prison in Greece after spending two months in detention because Amnesty International Report 2021/22 359