Tajikistan tries journalist for contacting Islamic group

A BBC journalist has gone on trial in Tajikistan for allegedly having illegal contact with an Islamist group that is banned in the Central Asian state.

The European Union, United States and Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have condemned the case, which critics have called an attempt by Tajik officials to restrict press freedom.

Urunboy Usmonov (59) was arrested in June and accused of being a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is outlawed in Tajikistan for allegedly fomenting unrest and calling for the overthrow of President Imomali Rakhmon, who has run the country since 1992.

Investigators dropped that charge soon after the arrest of Usmonov – who has worked for the BBC’s Central Asian service for a decade – but instead prosecuted him for failing to tell police about his meetings with Hizb-ut Tahrir members.

The BBC insists any contact its reporter had with Hizb ut-Tahrir was for purely journalistic purposes, and has called for the charges against him to be dropped.

In a statement, the US embassy in the Tajik capital, Tashkent, said: “Mr Usmonov, like all journalists, must meet with a wide range of individuals to properly perform his legitimate work as a journalist. We call on the authorities to drop the remaining charge against him of failure to inform the authorities of illegal activities.”

Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE’s representative on media freedom, has also called for Usmonov’s release. “While I respect the government’s legitimate right to fight terrorism, the circumstances surrounding Usmonov’s detention and treatment, including the denial of his right to legal counsel, raises concerns about undue limitations on free expression,” she wrote in a letter to the Tajik government.

“I am concerned that his case may be another attempt to silence a journalist who writes on sensitive topics in Tajikistan.”

The case has caused an international outcry and damaged Tajikistan’s reputation as it seeks to damp down sporadic unrest in mountain regions where warlords who fought Mr Rakhmon’s forces during a bloody 1992-7 civil war are still influential.

The government says local guerrillas have joined forces with radical Islamist elements that have links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, fighting across Tajikistan’s porous border with Afghanistan.

Heavily armed heroin smugglers also criss-cross the region and clash with Tajik security forces.

Last year, Tajik courts jailed 158 people for religious extremism, compared to 37 the previous year.