Amnesty International Report 2004 - Tajkistan

Covering events from January - December 2003

Significant steps were taken to reduce the scope and application of the death penalty, although death sentences continued to be handed down.

Background

In June the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) expressed concern at the results of a nationwide referendum to amend the Tajik Constitution. Over 93 per cent of voters had reportedly approved 56 amendments, including a proposal to allow the President to serve two seven-year terms, which could potentially extend incumbent President Rakhmonov's term in office until 2020.

Two senior members of the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) were charged with serious criminal offences amid claims that their arrests were politically motivated. IRP deputy head Shamsuddin Shamsiddinov was formally charged in October with treason, the formation of an armed criminal group and other offences. He had reportedly been held incommunicado for several days following his detention in June. In August Kasym Rakhimov, a senior IRP member, was among 14 men charged with the rape of 11 underage girls. He could face the death penalty.

The Tajik general procuracy asked the Russian authorities for the arrest and extradition of two senior secular opposition figures – Yakub Salimov and Habib Nasrulloyev – on charges of attempting to overthrow the state in connection with their alleged participation in coup attempts in 1997 and 1998.

Labour migration

Labour migration from Tajikistan involves around 600,000 Tajik citizens and affects one in four households in Tajikistan, according to a report published in October by the International Organization for Migration. Widespread poverty and unemployment were believed to be behind this rising trend, with 80 per cent of the population estimated by the UN to be living below the poverty line.

The government continued to negotiate bilateral agreements with the Russian authorities to establish safeguards to protect the basic human rights of Tajik labour migrants in the Russian Federation. More than 200 Tajik migrant workers were reported to have died in the Russian Federation in suspicious circumstances during the first half of the year; unofficial sources put the number at over 800.

Death penalty legislative reforms

In July parliament approved a draft law, proposed by President Rakhmonov, amending the Criminal Code. Among the amendments were the abolition of the death penalty for all women and for men aged under 18, and a reduction from 15 to five in the number of articles in the Criminal Code carrying a possible death sentence. The amendments became law in August. Unofficial sources reported that the President had instructed the Clemency Commission to recommend more prisoners on death row for pardon. At least two death sentences were overturned on appeal.

The authorities continued to treat information on death sentences and executions as a state secret and consequently it was difficult to obtain precise figures. At least 34 men were believed to have been sentenced to death. AI did not learn of any executions during the year.

• In November the UN Human Rights Committee called for death row prisoner Abduali Kurbanov to be given a new, open and fair trial or released .The Committee found that Tajikistan had violated Abduali Kurbanov's rights under six articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including the right to a fair trial and the right not to be tortured. Abduali Kurbanov was sentenced to death for "aggravated murder" in March 2002 without effective right of appeal. He was detained in May 2001 on allegations of fraud, and was subsequently convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment. While in prison he was allegedly tortured to force him to confess to three murders.