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Sabina Rosas, a 33-year-old artist also known as Sabina Khorramdel, was found murdered in a hotel room in the Hamptons in the state of New York, according to the British tabloid the Daily Mail. Born in Tajikistan, Rosas moved to the U.S. in 2009. Her body was discovered on October 28 by staff at the Shou Sugi Ban House spa hotel. Police suspect her partner, 56-year-old Thomas Gannon, in the murder. Gannon was later found dead at his Pennsylvania home, with authorities confirming he had died by suicide. The couple had been seen together at a spa in Water Mill, where CCTV captured Gannon leaving alone. Suffolk County police have described Rosas’s murder as a domestic incident. In 2023 Rosas co-founded Ruyò Journal, a platform to support Central Asian cultural dialogue and community. Just before her birthday, she started a fundraiser to travel to Portugal, where she planned to host her first artist residency in November. She hoped it would provide a beautiful and inspiring space for creating new work. Announcing her plans, she had said: “I will also launch my artist website to create the perfect digital space to showcase my art." “As I am about to turn 33, I can’t help but laugh at the fact that 33 is often associated with the age of Jesus when he made his final sacrifice. Although I don’t plan on doing anything dramatic, I consider this year a turning point in my life,” Sabina wrote shortly before her death.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has called on law enforcement agencies to stop prosecuting citizens for their activity on social media, particularly for likes and comments. Rahmon said this at the opening of a new training institute for Interior Ministry personnel, timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Constitution and the Day of the Tajik Police. In Tajikistan, even adding simple “likes” on posts by opposition figures, or reposting their videos, can lead to arrest. Since 2016, the country's Criminal Code has included a provision on “public justification of extremism,” which allows law enforcement agencies to equate likes with support for extremist ideas. For example, in August 2023, 70-year-old Kamoliddin Sharofov was sentenced to five years for liking posts on a banned website. Rahmon expressed concern over the growth of unfounded criminal cases against social media users, and noted that law enforcement agencies' actions undermine public confidence. He called for restraint, emphasizing that any police action should show respect for citizens' rights and the principles of democracy. The Tajik government has previously been criticized by the opposition and international organizations, including the U.S. State Department, for arresting citizens for their online activities.
Several suspects have been arrested in Uzbekistan following a shooting attack on a vehicle in a case that is being treated as attempted murder, according to the prosecutor general’s office. The investigation and public uncertainty about some of the key details of the assault has highlighted tension in Uzbekistan over the role of media and state control of the flow of information. The attack by two people early Saturday, a type of violence that is rare in Uzbekistan, prompted a flurry of reports by Uzbek media organizations and social media posts that a former high-profile figure in the government of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was traveling in the vehicle and was the target. The organizations did not identify their sources. Authorities did not directly confirm or deny the reports, but they warned that people who spread false information can be prosecuted because it can lead to panic and destabilize society. “The Prosecutor General's Office is conducting investigative actions concerning the criminal case related to the attempted murder in Qibray,” the office said, referring to an area in the Tashkent region where the attack occurred. “During the investigation and operational search activities, three additional individuals involved in committing this crime were identified and detained as suspects.” The arrests brings the total number of people in detention to four. The prosecutor general’s office has not commented on widespread Uzbek media reports that Komil Allamjonov, former chief of the presidential information department, had survived an attempt to kill him. But it has said in a separate statement that “unverified and baseless information” about the case “has been widely circulated on social media, lacking reliance on credible official sources.” The statement continued: “The law clearly defines both rights and responsibilities in the information sector—bloggers, group admins, and social media channel operators with large audiences should particularly be aware of this. Many in the public may accept any information they disseminate as fact. Media representatives must also adhere to the applicable legal norms in the same way that state agencies are required to.” The office appealed to media outlets to “rely on and reference only official information” that the prosecutor general’s office provides about such investigations. The law in Uzbekistan says the spread of false information that leads to the denigration of “a person´s dignity” or threatens “public order or security” can lead to prison sentences; advocates of freedom of expression say such regulations are used to muzzle criticism of the government. A recent criminal case against a blogger who made comments deemed to be offensive shows how the state seeks to regulate speech. For now, questions remain about the weekend attack on the vehicle. Inadvertently or not, at least one Uzbek media outlet was still linking Allamjonov to the case, even though authorities have not publicly mentioned him. An online headline in UzDaily.com read: “Three more suspects in the attempted assassination of Komil Allamjonov detained.”
According to Uzbek media, an assassination attempt was made on October 26 against Komil Allamjonov, the former head of the presidential information department. At about 1:40am near Allamjonov's home in Tashkent's Kibray district, two unknown people fired several shots at the car he was sitting in and fled the scene. No-one was hurt. The type of weapon used in the attack has not been determined. An attempted murder case has been opened, and a search is underway. However, in its statement, the General Prosecutor’s Office did not confirm that this was an assassination attempt against Allamjonov. The media reported the incident under headlines about "Allamjonov's assassination," prompting an official response from the General Prosecutor’s Office. They clarified that the information being circulated about the shooting lacks confirmation from reliable official sources. The prosecutor’s office stated that the investigation was ongoing and promised further updates.
On the morning of October 26, news broke that six prisoners had escaped from a penal colony in Russia’s Lipetsk region. The escapees—five from Uzbekistan and one from Tajikistan—had been planning their escape for over six months. They stole tools seven months prior and used them to dig two tunnels. The Lipetsk prison is where the infamous Aleksey Sherstobitov is serving a 23-year sentence. Sherstobitov, known as 'Lyosha the Soldier', was a notorious hitman in the 1990s, working for the infamous Orekhovskaya crime group. Law enforcement has detained five of the six prisoners, who escaped through a dug tunnel. The prisoners, all convicted of rape and drug trafficking, had planned to reach the Kazakhstan border but only managed to travel a few dozen kilometers toward Tambov and Moscow. The search for the remaining escapee is ongoing. A criminal case has been opened for negligence against the colony officials who allowed the prisoners to escape. If found guilty they could face up to seven years in prison under Article 293 of the Russian Criminal Code.
Authorities in Uzbekistan are searching for suspects who opened fire on a vehicle in the Tashkent region early Saturday, the prosecutor general’s office said. The office did not immediately confirm some Uzbek media reports that Komil Allamjonov, former chief of the presidential information department, may have been in the vehicle. There were no injuries in the attack, which occurred around 1:40 a.m. while a person identified only as “citizen S.S.” was driving a Range Rover in Qibray district, according to a statement of the prosecutor general’s office. It said “two unidentified individuals fired multiple shots at the vehicle from a firearm and then fled the scene.” The type of weapon used in the attack has not been determined, the statement said. An attempted murder case was opened and a search is underway. “Currently, a rapid investigation group consisting of qualified officers from relevant agencies has been formed, and investigative actions are ongoing,” the prosecutor general’s office said. Gazeta.uz, an Uzbek media outlet, said a large group of law enforcement officials converged on the area where the shooting occurred. It quoted an unidentified person as saying police were asking for video recordings from nearby surveillance cameras. Allamjonov had worked as head of the presidential press service and held other posts prior to becoming chief of the presidency’s Information Policy Department in August 2023. Saida Mirziyoyeva, daughter of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and a senior presidential aide, thanked Allamjonov when he left that job in September this year. Allamjonov said he would go into the private sector.
