ATajik man living in Canada who was detained by Tajik security authorities in the city of Khorugh has reportedly been charged with high treason and spying.

Aleksandr Sodikov was detained in Khorugh on June 16 shortly after speaking with civil society activists, including Alim Sherzamonov.

Sherzamonov was one of the leaders of deadly May protests against police actions that targeted suspected criminals in Khorugh.

Sodikov, 31, is a Tajik national residing in Canada.

He said he has been touring Central Asia as part of his doctoral research at the University of Toronto and the University of Exeter in Britain.

Sodikov was shown on local television in Khorugh on June 18, speaking about his research work and his meeting with Sherzamonov.

Amnesty International, Freedom House, and Human Rights Watch have issued statements expressing concern over Sodikov’s detention and urging Tajik authorities to provide detailed and timely information about his situation.

http://www.rferl.org/content/detained-tajik-man-charged-with-high-treason-spying/25429332.html

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has expressed concerns over the situation around a Tajik scholar from Canada, who was detained by Tajik authorities on spying charges in the city of Khorugh this week. 

In a June 19 statement, HRW’s Europe and Central Asia Director, Hugh Williamson, said the Tajik government should release Aleksandr Sodikov or charge him and provide him access to a lawyer.

The HRW statement comes a day after Sodikov had been shown on local television in Khorugh.

In a 10-minute-long video, which appears to have been heavily edited, Sodikov speaks about his research work and a meeting with a local opposition activist in Khorugh.

Sodikov, 31, is a Tajik national with permanent residency in Canada.

He said he has been touring Central Asia as part of his doctoral research at the University of Toronto and the University of Exeter in Britain.

http://www.rferl.org/content/detained-tajik-scholar-from-canada-shown-on-tv/25427891.html

Kyrgyzstan’s Kylym Shamy (Torch of the Century) human rights center has urged law-enforcement authorities to pay attention to the recurring issue of attacks against lawyers in the country’s courtrooms. 

The Bishkek-based nongovernmental organization expressed its concerns in a statement issued on June 18, saying violent attacks against lawyers during trials have occurred many times in the past but the perpetrators are never held responsible.

The statement came the same day as reports that lawyer Kumushbek Ybykeev had been severely beaten by relatives and supporters of the victims of a deadly traffic accident during hearings into the case at the Osh Regional Court in the country’s south.

Ybykeev, who was representing a defendant in the case, was hospitalized.

According to Kyrgyz media reports, Ybykeev was threatened by several people who visited him later in the hospital.

http://www.rferl.org/content/kyrgyz-rights-center-concerned-over-attacks-against-lawyers/25426795.html

The whereabouts of a Tajik citizen from Canada, who was detained in the capital of Tajikistan’s restive Gorno-Badakhshan province, Khorugh, on June 16, remain unknown. 

On June 17, Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security said Aleksandr Sodikov had been detained in Khorugh on suspicion of spying for an unnamed country after he met with civil society activist Alim Sherzamonov.

Sherzamonov was one of the leaders of deadly May protests against police actions that targeted suspected criminals in Khorugh.

Sodikov, 31, said he has been touring several Tajik and Uzbek cities as part of doctoral research at the University of Toronto.

Later on June 17 some sources in Khorugh said Sodikov was released after investigators found out that his meetings in Khorugh were linked to his academic research.

However, Interior Ministry and State Committee for National Security neither confirmed nor rejected the information.

http://www.rferl.org/content/tajikistan-detains-man-on-charges-of-foreign-spying/25424786.html

Internet users in Tajikistan report that Google services, including YouTube and the Gmail electronic mail system, remain inaccessible, despite protests by international organizations. 

Reporters Without Borders and the OSCE’s representative on freedom of the media have urged Tajik authorities to restore access to YouTube and Google.

The services became inaccessible via Tajikistan’s leading Internet providers starting on June 9.

The deputy chief of the Tajik government’s Communications Service, Rafiqjon Shakirov, told RFE/RL on June 11 that his agency had nothing to do with the situation and cited «possible technical problems» as the cause of the disruption.

Meanwhile, owners of expensive Android smartphones, which run Google-based software, complain that the situation has turned their phones into ordinary mobile devices.

http://www.rferl.org/content/google-youtube-remain-inaccessible-in-tajikistan/25423753.html

TAJIKISTAN

YouTube blocked, Google partly inaccessible

Many Internet users in Tajikistan have been unable to access Google’s search engine and other Google services such as Gmail since yesterday. The problem is being reported above all by users of the Tcell and Megafon mobile Internet services. And most people have been unable to access the Google-owned video-sharing site YouTube since 10 June.

According to the independent news website Asia Plus, the same goes for the news agency Tojnews website. The authorities have so far denied any involvement although they often censor critical news websites.

“Arbitrarily restricting access to such sites constitutes a grave violation of Tajik citizens’ right to information,” said Johann Bihr, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.

“As the authorities usually deny any responsibility when they order the blocking of websites, their latest denials are not a sufficient response. And anyway, it is their job to guarantee the continuity of Internet access in Tajikistan.”

Bihr added: “We call for an urgent explanation by the head of the government telecommunications service, Beg Sabur, and we ask him to do what is necessary to restore access to the blocked sites without delay. The government must refrain from putting any pressure on Internet Service Providers.”

Tcell said Gmail’s inaccessibility was an indirect result of the blocking of YouTube. After the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe yesterday called on the government to do everything in its power to restore access to YouTube, the telecommunications service denied any involvement in the blocking and suggested that it was due to “technical problems.”

The intermittent blocking of social networks and independent news sites has become frequent in the past two years in Tajikistan. Facebook, Twitter and Vkontakte have all suffered repeatedly, as have the Tajik services of the BBC and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the news agencies Asia Plus, Ferghana and RIA Novosti, and the news sites Vesti.ru and Gazeta.ru. The last blocking of YouTube was shortly before the November presidential election and lasted several months.

The blocking usually follows the posting of content that is particularly critical of President Emomali Rakhmon’s autocratic government. At first, the authorities usually deny any involvement, but most of the ISPs have in the past acknowledged receiving blocking instructions from the telecommunications service, often in the form of an SMS.

Photos of anti-government graffiti on the streets of the capital appeared in Facebook on 4 June. The same day, the independent news website Ozodagon reported that a Facebook user had been arrested for “insulting the president.”

Tajikistan is ranked 115th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

Read earlier RWB releases on this subject: 

• Massive Internet censorship could add Tajikistan to “countries under surveillance” (August 2012)
• Joint letter to Tajik director of communication services, Beg Zuhurov (August 2012)
• Access to one of Tajikistan’s main news sites blocked (July 2012)
• Facebook and four news websites blocked on government’s orders (March 2013)
• After using civil war spectre to gag media, government urged to dialogue (October 2010)

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Eeurope’s representative on freedom of the media has urged Tajik authorities to restore access to YouTube.