Tajikistan Justice - The Times Of Central Asia

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Espionage

German Spy Scandal Puts Central Asian and Caucasus Espionage Cases in Focus

The arrest of former German intelligence chief August Hanning has drawn attention to Azerbaijan. German journalists reported that he allegedly had contacts with Azerbaijan's intelligence service. Baku rejected the allegations, while German prosecutors have not confirmed any Azerbaijani involvement. In recent years, citizens of Central Asia and the South Caucasus have repeatedly been implicated in espionage and treason cases. The accused and suspects include former intelligence chiefs, military personnel, officials, scientists, and foreign nationals. Some have received lengthy prison sentences, while others remain under investigation. In many cases, information about alleged foreign intelligence connections is limited to media reports. German Scandal and Ties to Baku On October 6, 2026, the German authorities detained 80-year-old August Hanning, who headed the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1998 to 2005. Former BND employee Manfred D. was also taken into custody. Hanning is suspected of attempted treason, obtaining state secrets, and acting on behalf of a foreign intelligence service. Manfred D. is suspected of assisting in the alleged offenses. Both were placed in pretrial detention on October 7. According to federal prosecutors, in the spring of 2010, Hanning reached an agreement with his former subordinate to obtain intelligence documents in exchange for money. By June 2022, Manfred D. had allegedly provided him with approximately 2,000 documents, including classified materials. By then, Hanning was working as a private consultant and, investigators believe, used the information for commercial purposes. According to German media reports, the documents included materials on Iran's nuclear program, Russia's armed forces, and information received from partner intelligence agencies. Investigators also allege that Hanning prepared an analytical memorandum for an officer of a foreign intelligence service. It remains unknown whether the intended recipient received it. Der Spiegel reported alleged contacts between Hanning and a representative of Azerbaijani intelligence. The investigative outlet CORRECTIV examined his longstanding ties to Baku, including his participation in the German-Azerbaijani Forum. German prosecutors have not identified the foreign intelligence service involved in the investigation. Azerbaijan rejected reports of its involvement and warned of damage to relations with Berlin. An Azerbaijani official also claimed that German intelligence representatives had assured Baku that the investigation was unrelated to Azerbaijan, although this has not been publicly confirmed by the German authorities. The classified documents were discovered during a separate investigation. In September 2025, police searched Hanning's premises in connection with the alleged abduction of the children of German businesswoman Christina Block from Denmark. The discovery led to a separate criminal investigation opened in May 2026. Hanning's lawyer acknowledged that his client possessed confidential documents, but rejected allegations he had passed on information to Germany's detriment or received payment for doing so. Kazakhstan’s Espionage and State Secrets Cases In Kazakhstan, one of the best-known treason cases of recent times involved the prosecution of China expert Konstantin Syroyezhkin, who worked for many years at the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the president. Syroyezhkin was detained in February 2019 and sentenced to ten years in prison in October. The trial was held behind closed...

Religious Freedom

Why Central Asian Governments Are Regulating Religious Life

Kyrgyzstan is requiring bloggers and other social media users who publicly preach religion online to obtain a special certificate. The website of the National Agency for Religious Affairs and Interethnic Relations includes an application form for registration as a “religious preacher.” Nurgazy Kyrgyzbaev, a chief specialist at the agency, announced the measure on local radio. He said the requirement stems from the country’s new religion law, which introduced the legal category of “religious preacher.” “People who want to publicly call others to religion must obtain a special certificate. Their religious education will be considered first and foremost. Recently, people have appeared online who call themselves bloggers and create religious content,” Kyrgyzbaev said, adding that their religious qualifications had previously gone unchecked. This, he argued, created a risk of inaccurate or misleading religious information being spread. Under the new system, applicants must have higher or secondary religious education and obtain the consent of the relevant central religious authority before registering with the agency. For Muslim applicants, this means approval from the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kyrgyzstan, or Muftiate. Kyrgyzbaev said Muftiate employees engaged in preaching are automatically treated as religious preachers. Kyrgyzstan has traditionally allowed greater religious diversity than most of its Central Asian neighbors, including a wider range of Islamic movements. It remains the only country in the region where Tablighi Jamaat and the Nurcular movement can operate legally. Tablighi Jamaat, for example, is banned as extremist in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Religious Freedom Concerns Across the Region Central Asia has long attracted criticism from international religious-freedom monitors. In its 2026 annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that the U.S. State Department place Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan on its Special Watch List for severe violations of religious freedom. It recommended that Tajikistan and Turkmenistan be designated Countries of Particular Concern, a higher category reserved under U.S. law for governments accused of particularly severe violations. According to USCIRF, Tajik authorities continued to use the country’s law on traditions and ceremonies to regulate religious life, including through fines and public campaigns. After amendments adopted in 2024 prohibited the import, sale, promotion, and wearing of clothing deemed “alien to national culture,” authorities also campaigned against what they described as foreign styles of dress. USCIRF and other religious-freedom monitors have reported even tighter state control in Turkmenistan, where religious activity outside officially approved structures remains heavily restricted. Reports have described pressure on religious leaders to provide information to the authorities about believers practicing outside state-sanctioned forms of Islam. USCIRF has argued that Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, like other Central Asian states, apply extremism laws to religious practices that involve neither violence nor incitement. Religion Moves Online in Kazakhstan In Kazakhstan, as in Kyrgyzstan, mosques are no longer necessarily the primary source of religious knowledge for younger people. At independence in 1991, Kazakhstan had only 68 mosques. The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kazakhstan reported 2,945 functioning mosques at the beginning of 2026. The expansion reflects the extraordinary revival of...

Islam and National Identity

Dombra Dispute and Niqab Bans Fuel Religious Debate in Central Asia

Standing before a court in Aktobe in June, 35-year-old Azat Konys apologized to “the entire Kazakh people” for insulting one of the country’s most cherished cultural symbols. Two months earlier, during a TikTok livestream, he had declared the dombra forbidden under Islam, compared the two-stringed instrument to part of the devil’s anatomy and called clerics from Kazakhstan’s official Islamic authority “dogs of hell.” Konys asked the court not to imprison him. The judge instead sentenced him to three years and six months for inciting religious and national hatred. The controversy began when Konys cited the Hanafi school of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, the dominant legal tradition among Muslims in Kazakhstan, to argue that the dombra and other stringed instruments, including the guitar and balalaika, were haram, meaning forbidden under Islamic law. The remarks caused particular anger because the dombra is more than a musical instrument in Kazakhstan: it has accompanied oral poetry and storytelling for generations and is officially celebrated as a symbol of cultural heritage and national identity. Police identified Konys after clips from the livestream circulated on social media and detained him in April. The case is an unusually stark example of how online religious disputes are spilling into legal and political life across Central Asia. Arguments that might once have remained within mosques or religious communities are now spreading through social media, forcing governments and official Islamic authorities alike to decide where religious expression ends and attacks on national culture begin. A more recent controversy arose in Kazakhstan’s Turkestan Region, where a 66-year-old guest at a toi, a traditional wedding feast, called for stricter adherence to Islamic law. He urged the organizers to separate men and women and remove music and alcohol from the celebration, while describing musicians as “heralds of Satan.” The video spread rapidly on social media, prompting nationwide debate. The man was detained and placed in a temporary detention facility for incitement of religious and social hatred. In a statement, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that freedom of expression does not extend to statements that degrade the dignity of others or could provoke religious or social hostility. The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kazakhstan (SAMK), the country’s main official Muslim body, later issued its own response. It stated that Islam does not prohibit music in itself and stressed that publicly insulting artists or women is inconsistent with Islamic ethics. Another controversy centered on Nauryz, the spring equinox holiday celebrated throughout Central Asia and across much of the Turkic and Iranian cultural world. In March, a blogger in the Almaty Region described the holiday as “non-Muslim” and argued that it should not be celebrated. Police opened a criminal case against him on suspicion of inciting religious hatred. Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor General’s Office subsequently warned of legal liability for statements attacking Nauryz and other national traditions. The SAMK, meanwhile, publicly celebrated Nauryz as a national holiday promoting social harmony and charitable acts. The debate soon spread beyond social media into politics and the entertainment industry. Producer and television presenter Bayan Alaguzova said...

Bride Kidnapping

Bride Kidnapping in Central Asia: Why the Practice Persists Despite Tougher Laws

Bride kidnapping for the purpose of forcing women into marriage remains one of the least visible forms of gender-based violence in Central Asia. Although abduction and coercion into marriage are punishable under criminal law across the region, the offenses are defined differently from country to country. Their true scale is difficult to measure. Many victims never report the crime, while some cases are still viewed as a continuation of tradition rather than a violation of criminal law. Over the past decade, governments across Central Asia have begun revising their approaches to the problem. Kyrgyzstan strengthened criminal penalties following several high-profile cases. Kazakhstan did not close a legal loophole that allowed many perpetrators to avoid prosecution until 2025. Uzbekistan has a specific criminal provision covering the abduction of women for marriage, while Tajikistan does not appear to define bride kidnapping as a separate offense. In Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, however, assessing the prevalence of the practice remains particularly difficult because of limited research and incomplete official data. The term “bride kidnapping” has not always referred to the same practice. Anthropologists note that historically it covered a range of marriage customs, from mutually agreed elopements and staged abductions to the violent kidnapping of women. Contemporary researchers stress that the presence or absence of a woman’s free consent is the key distinction between these practices. Comparable customs once existed among a number of Central Asian peoples. One documented motive has been the desire to avoid kalym, the traditional bride price paid by the groom’s family to the bride’s relatives. Economic motives, however, did not alter the nature of the crime when a woman did not consent to the marriage. The issue has been studied most extensively in Kyrgyzstan. A nationally representative survey conducted in 2015–2016 by the National Statistical Committee with support from UN Women, UNFPA, and the International Organization for Migration found that 22.1% of marriages involved some form of bride abduction. Of these, 16.3% were reported as taking place with the woman’s consent, while 5.8% occurred without it. The frequently cited claim that more than one in five Kyrgyz marriages begins with bride kidnapping therefore combines consensual and non-consensual practices. It should not be presented as an estimate of forced abduction. The figures were based on respondents’ accounts and may not capture every form of family or social pressure surrounding consent. Known locally as ala kachuu, or “grab and run,” the non-consensual abduction of a woman for marriage is a criminal offense in Kyrgyzstan. In 2013, the penalty for abducting an adult woman for marriage against her will was increased to between five and seven years in prison. The corresponding sentence when the victim was under 17 was increased to between five and ten years. Tougher penalties, however, have not prevented further tragedies. One of the best-known cases was the 2018 murder of Burulai Turdaaly Kyzy, a 20-year-old medical student. After she was abducted, her family contacted the police. Officers brought both Burulai and her abductor to a police station but left...

Religion

Tajikistan Hijab Ban Denied by Authorities Amid Confusion

Tajik authorities have denied reports that the country has introduced a new ban on beards and hijabs, following renewed attention to the government’s regulation of religious dress and appearance. An official from Tajikistan’s Committee on Religion, Regulation of Traditions, Celebrations and Ceremonies told Asia-Plus that no new legislation prohibiting beards or hijabs had been adopted. The committee said recent reports had misrepresented the state of religious rights in Tajikistan and had relied on information from unreliable sources. The government statement followed a July 25 report by Azattyq Asia (RFE/RL) describing continued pressure on some men with beards and women wearing Islamic headscarves. Azattyq reported that officials had conducted campaigns encouraging women to wear traditional Tajik clothing and avoid styles regarded as foreign. Several men also alleged that police had detained them because of their facial hair, with some claiming that officers forcibly shaved their beards. One man told the outlet that he had been ordered to send police a photograph of his clean-shaven face each week after spending three days in detention. The police did not respond to Azattyq Asia’s request for comment on the allegation. There is no Tajik law explicitly prohibiting men from growing beards. However, the government has imposed broader restrictions on clothing and forms of religious expression. In June 2024, Tajikistan adopted amendments prohibiting the import, sale, promotion, and wearing in public of clothing deemed "alien to national culture". The Times of Central Asia reported at the time that violations could result in substantial fines, although the legislation did not clearly define which clothes fell under the prohibition. Officials have offered differing interpretations of the law. Some have said it covers hijabs, religious veils, abayas, and other forms of Islamic clothing, as well as ripped jeans and clothing considered excessively revealing. The government has said its policies are intended to preserve Tajik traditions and prevent religious extremism. Human rights organizations have argued that the restrictions interfere with freedom of religion and personal expression. International rights groups have called on Tajikistan to repeal the clothing provisions.

Press Freedom

Tajikistan Frees Two Journalists as Press Freedom Concerns Persist

An international media rights group has welcomed the release from prison of two journalists in Tajikistan, while urging the government to free others who remain in jail. Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, said Zavkibek Saidamini and Abdusattor Pirmukhammadzoda were freed on July 18 after four years in detention. “They should never have been jailed, just like their colleagues, who must also be released,” RSF said. The two journalists were sentenced to seven years in prison in 2022 after being convicted of links to groups labeled as extremist, and were released under an amnesty law that was passed by Tajikistan’s parliament and signed by President Emomali Rahmon in June. Under the new law, thousands of people became eligible for early release or a reduction in the length of their prison sentence. Saidamini and Pirmukhammadzoda, who had denied the charges against them, spoke about their experience in jail as well as their thoughts for the future in an interview with Asia-Plus, a news agency based in Tajikistan. Saidamini, 43, said he had been suffering spine and leg problems in jail but hoped to return to journalism, working as a freelancer if state television channels are willing to hire him. “In the past, we tried to speak about shortcomings,” Saidamini told Asia-Plus. “Our only aim was to help resolve problems in one state institution or another.” Pirmukhammadzoda, who worked for many years at state radio, didn’t say whether he planned to return to journalism. In Facebook posts in 2022, he was critical of the government and the prosecution of journalists. Tajik journalists who are still in jail include Abdullo Ghurbati, Khurshed Fozilov, Rukhshona Hakimova, and Ahmad Ibrohim, according to Asia-Plus. Blogger Daler Imomali is also in detention. In April, the Committee to Protect Journalists submitted a report on what it called a significant deterioration in media freedom in Tajikistan to the United Nations Human Rights Council. It said that since 2022, nine journalists had been sentenced to jail terms of up to 20 years. In announcing the amnesty law, Tajikistan’s presidency said it “allows persons who have committed crimes to be rehabilitated, return to their families and relatives, and engage in constructive work.”