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Controversial Kazakh Opposition Figure Aidos Sadykov Shot in Kyiv

An unknown man in Kyiv fired several shots at Kazakh activist and oppositionist Aidos Sadykov, who has been granted official refugee status in Ukraine. It is reported that the incident occurred in the Shevchenkivskiy district of the Ukrainian capital when Sadykov was approaching his car with his wife, Natalia, who previously worked for Mukhtar Ablyazov’s opposition paper, Respublika. The gunman used a silencer on the firearm. Sadykov's condition is currently assessed as serious; his wife was not injured. As this is a case involving a high-profile individual, the head of the regional police, Andriy Nebytov, was called to the crime scene. Sadykov is the author of the Telegram channel 'Base', which has 59,000 subscribers, and has been permanently residing in Kyiv since 2014. Over the years, he has criticized the current Kazakh authorities, including the current president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. In 2020 Base, together with the initiative to create the opposition Democratic Party, became the co-organizers of a rally in Almaty demanding a boycott of the upcoming parliamentary election. The Democratic Party of Kazakhstan, an unregistered political party, was founded and led by Zhanbolat Mamai, a former journalist who was convicted for receiving funds from Ablyazov in 2017. Sadykov and Mamai both actively supported the protests in January 2022 in Kazakhstan, widely seen as an attempted coup. He is wanted in Kazakhstan under the articles on the incitement of discord.

Konibodom

Men in Black Blamed for Series of Murders in Northern Tajikistan

People in the Konibodom area of northern Tajikistan are locking themselves in their homes when darkness falls. Some are arming themselves. Others have left altogether out of fear. There appears to be a serial killer or killers on the loose. At least 13 people have been murdered in their homes in or near Konibodom since late March, and local police seem baffled as to who is doing this or why. It started with the killing of five members of the Sharipov family in late March. Initially investigators believed the 65-year-old head of the house had killed his wife, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren, then hanged himself, but they later determined someone broke into the home and the killer hanged the man to make it look like a domestic dispute and suicide. On the night of April 16-17, someone broke into a home in the Gafurjon Ortikov neighborhood of Konibodom and killed the husband and wife who lived there. Police said the bodies of the victims, whom police did not identify, bore the signs of a violent death. The most recent killings happened on the night of May 28-29 in the village of Sanjidzor, outside Konibodom. Mahbuba Ahmedova and her two children were killed in their home and that same night, at a different house, the deputy director of a local school, Zulho Ibragimova, her brother and brother’s wife were killed. Local law enforcement said preliminary evidence showed all six people were strangled. Locals speak about men in black who break into people’s homes at night and kill them. A video was posted, purportedly from a surveillance camera in Konibodom, that shows a person with black clothing and a black hood or mask trying to break into a home. Konibodom resident Mahsuda Kodirova said she and her daughter were sitting in the courtyard of their home a little after 10 in the evening on June 11, when a man in black clothing with a black mask suddenly appeared and approached them. Kadirova said she and her daughter screamed and ran out into the street. When the police arrived, they told Kadirova they had received many similar calls from terrified residents during the previous 48 hours. Understandably, there is panic in Konibodom. Many of the men, especially the young men of Konibodom, are currently migrant laborers in Russia who are supporting their elderly parents, wives, and children back home. The bodies of Mahbuba Ahmendova and her two children were found by neighbors after Ahmedova’s husband had been calling her from Russia and finally called a neighbor to go and check on his family. Konibodom is near the border with Kyrgyzstan and the population of the city is mixed, mostly Tajiks, but many Kyrgyz as well. Most of the victims have been ethnic Tajiks, but Ibragimova, her brother, and her brother’s wife were Kyrgyz. The seeming randomness of the victims puts everyone on edge, at least everyone still there. The Tajik news outlet Asia-Plus sent its reporters to Sanjidzor after the killings in late...

Former Opposition Party Leader Saidjafar Usmonzoda Arrested in Tajikistan

Saidjafar Usmonzoda, a member of parliament and former chairman of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan, has been stripped of his parliamentary immunity and arrested in Dushanbe. The decision to strip Usmonzoda of immunity was made at a meeting of the fifth session of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (parliament) at the suggestion of Tajikistan's Prosecutor General, the Khovar news agency has reported. A preliminary investigation found that in September 2021, Usmonzoda spoke on a cell phone with Sharofiddin Gadoev, deputy head of the extremist terrorist organization, Paimoni Milli Tochikiston, discussing plans to usurp state power in Tajikistan. According to the investigation, Gadoev promised that to achieve this goal, the head of the Islamic Renaissance Party, which is banned in Tajikistan, Mukhiddin Kabiri, would provide financial assistance and more than 3,000 fighters from the terrorist organization Jamaat Ansarulloh from abroad. According to law enforcement, Usmonzoda recruited supporters from various social strata inside and outside the country to destabilize the sociopolitical situation in several regions in the shortest possible time, seizing law enforcement agencies and military structures, taking weapons, and violently overthrowing the state. According to the investigation materials, to implement these plans, Usmonzoda requested $10 million from a representative of a foreign country to attract influential persons and organize rallies. On June 12th, 2024, a criminal case was initiated against Usmonzoda and his associates, with Usmonzoda being arrested as a suspect.

Kyrgyzstan’s President Says Acquitted Protesters Deserved “At Least a Fine or Probation”

International rights groups welcomed the recent acquittal of more than 20 Kyrgyz activists and political figures who would have faced long jail sentences if convicted of plotting riots and other crimes, but Kyrgyzstan’s president says the defendants should have been fined or put on probation. President Sadyr Japarov commented about the case on Saturday in an interview with the official Kabar News Agency, one day after the activists were acquitted because of insufficient evidence. The activists were arrested in 2022 after protesting against a border demarcation agreement with Uzbekistan that involved the Kempir-Abad Dam and surrounding lands. “The court is a separate branch of government,” Japarov said. “I have been saying since the beginning that no one has the right to interfere in the work of the court. We must all obey the court's decision. We have no right to criticize whether it is legal or not. Whatever the court decides, whether it is right or wrong, we must agree.” Japarov continued: “But now, after the decision of the court, I can express my opinion. If I were a judge, I would give the organizers of this case some kind of punishment, at least a fine or probation.” The Kyrgyz president said the activists deserved a penalty because, in his view, they misled people into thinking that Kyrgyzstan was losing the entire dam in the border deal, when in fact it is being jointly managed with Uzbekistan. Prosecutors were seeking 20-year jail terms for the defendants. Several were also charged with trying to violently seize power. “We didn’t expect it, at all. We were crying from surprise,” Rita Karasartova, one of the accused activists said of the acquittal. She was quoted by Amnesty International, which described the charges as politically motivated. The prosecutions in the Kempir-Abad case fed into worries that Kyrgyzstan, under Japarov’s leadership, is walking back the relative freedoms that it has enjoyed in comparison to some of its Central Asian neighbors. Critics point to prosecutions of journalists and a new law that tightens control of foreign-funded non-governmental groups as signs of growing authoritarianism. Japarov has described some of the international criticism as an exercise in double standards and meddling in the country’s internal affairs.

Famous Tajik Blogger Subjected to Domestic Violence

In Tajikistan, the husband of famous blogger Rukhshona Rakhmatulloeva has been arrested after she complained of domestic violence, Asia-Plus reports. According to the Dushanbe City Department of Internal Affairs, Rukhshona Rakhmatulloyeva, known on Instagram under the nickname Sofi_1111 where she has more than 400,000 followers, appealed to the authorities through an e-mail in which she complained of beatings and rough treatment by her 32-year-old husband, Umed Rakhmatulloyev. Earlier, followers circulated screenshots of the blogger's post on her page, where she reported that her husband abuses her and threatens her with a knife. In the posts, it is reported that her husband sleeps and sits at home all day while she has to work and support the family. In addition, it is claimed that their children suffer psychologically due to frequent conflicts at home. "The investigation, which included interrogations of the suspect, the victim, and witnesses, confirmed the facts of violence and misunderstanding in the family. The Shohmansur district court sentenced him to administrative arrest for seven days,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement. The problem of domestic violence is acute in Tajikistan. According to the Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, 50 to 80% of women and children in the country are subjected to violence. According to the UN, every fifth woman in this country is a victim of domestic violence perpetrated by their husband, mother-in-law, or other family members. Nevertheless, only 1 in 10 women seek help to remedy the situation.

Extremism

Arrests of People from Tajikistan Who Crossed Border into U.S. Fuel Terrorism Worries

The reported arrests in the United States of eight people from Tajikistan with possible ties to a terror group has renewed concerns about extremism in the Central Asian country, which faced a backlash after the alleged involvement of some of its nationals in a terror attack in Russia in March. U.S. officials have provided little detail on the arrests of the men who had crossed into the United States from Mexico last year, though the development added to tension over the surge in illegal crossings at the southern border. Immigration and border security are a major campaign issue ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. Patrick Lechleitner, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, was asked on Wednesday about reports that background checks on the Tajik men failed to turn up any cause for concern. In an interview with the NewsNation network, Lechleitner said another agency, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, had first contact with the men as they crossed the border. “Sometimes there is just no information on individuals. I mean, it’s quite common… There is nothing,” he said. “There´s no criminal convictions, there’s no threat information or whatever on these individuals, or maybe these individuals are from an area that is particularly of concern, but that pops up later.” ICE was collaborating with the FBI and “we went out and got” the suspects after becoming aware of concerns about them, Lechleitner said. American law enforcement previously warned of the growing threat of terrorism on U.S. soil after the killing of about 145 people in an attack on the Crocus City Hall, an entertainment venue on the outskirts of Moscow, on March 22. The Islamic State group said it carried out the attack, and several people from Tajikistan were among suspects arrested by Russian authorities. “Now increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia concert hall a couple weeks ago,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told U.S. lawmakers on April 11. ISIS-K is an acronym used for an affiliate of the Islamic State branch that operates in Afghanistan and has sought recruits from Central Asia, particularly Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Crocus City Hall killings led to a backlash of suspicion against many Tajik migrants in Russia and difficult conditions for those trying to enter Russia in order to work, generating diplomatic tension between Moscow and Dushanbe and worries about the flow of remittances that are a vital part of Tajikistan’s economy. Tajikistan has not commented publicly on the arrests of the Tajik men in the United States. The Tajik government has previously said it is doing what it can to combat terrorism, downplaying questions about whether some of its internal restrictions, including on religious expression, might be contributing to radicalization. U.S. media reports, including from NBC News and ABC News, said the arrests occurred in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles this past weekend. The reports relied...