Tajikistan Justice - The Times Of Central Asia

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Rule of Law

Former Tajik Prosecutor’s Office Investigator Detained in Case of 23-Year-Old Woman’s Death

Tajikistan’s prosecutor general has confirmed that a former senior investigator is in custody in connection with the death of 23-year-old Mehrona Noibova, whose body was found near the Pyanj River in April. At a July 22 press conference, Prosecutor General Khabibullo Vokhidzoda said criminal proceedings had been opened against Firuz Saidzoda, formerly a senior investigator for especially important cases at the Prosecutor General’s Office. He said Saidzoda remained in detention while the investigation continued. The case was opened under Article 109, Part 1 of Tajikistan’s Criminal Code, a provision which covers causing a person to take or attempt to take their own life through threats, cruel treatment, or systematic humiliation. It carries a prison sentence of three to five years. The authorities have not disclosed the conduct underlying the case or the evidence gathered against Saidzoda. Noibova travelled with a group of friends to the Chorchaman resort in Darvoz district on April 3, according to local reports. She disappeared early the following morning. Her body was found on April 7 near the Pyanj River in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region. The fast-flowing Patkunob River runs through the resort and joins the Pyanj nearby. [caption id="attachment_52664" align="aligncenter" width="1774"] The Chorchaman resort in Darvoz district[/caption] Saidzoda and another Prosecutor General’s Office employee, Davlat Arabzoda, were among those on the trip. Vokhidzoda said Arabzoda had accompanied Saidzoda as a driver on a personal journey and was not involved in Noibova’s death. Noibova’s family has challenged the account that she took her own life. In April, a family friend told Radio Ozodi that relatives were being pressed to accept that explanation and sign case documents. The allegation has not been independently verified, and the Prosecutor General’s Office did not publicly address it at the time. Vokhidzoda’s remarks provide the first official confirmation that an employee of the Prosecutor General’s Office has been detained in connection with the case. The office has not released forensic findings, explained how Noibova entered the water, or specified what alleged threats, treatment, or humiliation formed the basis of the Article 109 investigation. [caption id="attachment_52666" align="aligncenter" width="1774"] The Pyanj River on the road between Qal’ai Khumb and Shurabad; image: Stephen M. Bland[/caption] The authorities have also not announced when the investigation is expected to conclude, whether the case will be sent to trial, or which body is overseeing an inquiry involving one of the Prosecutor General’s Office’s own former investigators. No court has so far ruled on the allegation against Saidzoda. If the case reaches trial, it will enter a judicial system in which acquittals are exceptionally rare. Tajikistan recorded one acquittal in the first half of 2026, after none in 2024 or 2025. As The Times of Central Asia reported in February, acquittals have accounted for well under 1% of criminal judgments in recent years. The authorities have not disclosed whether Saidzoda has entered a plea.

Labor Migration

Nearly 160,000 Citizens of Tajikistan Listed in Russia’s Controlled Persons Register

Nearly 160,000 citizens of Tajikistan, including about 25,000 minors, have been listed in Russia’s register of controlled persons, a senior official from Tajikistan’s migration service said. The figure reflects the impact of tighter Russian migration rules on one of Central Asia’s largest sources of migrant labor. Sharif Norzoda, Tajikistan’s deputy minister of labor, migration, and employment, said around 160,000 citizens of Tajikistan are currently listed in the register, with children included because they accompanied family members who had moved to Russia. The register, maintained by Russia’s Interior Ministry, is updated every four hours and contains information on foreign nationals who no longer have legal grounds to remain in the country. Individuals included in the database are required to regularize their legal status in Russia. Norzoda said more than 15,000 citizens of Tajikistan had sought assistance from the country’s migration service during the reporting period. The ministry also said 3,953 Tajik citizens facing temporary bans on entering Russia were advised against unnecessary travel after consulting migration authorities, helping them avoid being turned back at the border. According to the ministry, more than 10,700 labor migrants who returned from Russia have already found employment in Tajikistan. Russia introduced the register of controlled persons on February 5, 2025, to tighten migration enforcement. The database is accessible through the Russian Interior Ministry’s website and the government’s online services portal. It is intended to monitor foreign citizens whose legal right to stay in Russia has expired. The tighter migration regime has prompted Tajikistan to diversify destinations for its migrant workers. As previously reported by The Times of Central Asia, the government has expanded labor migration initiatives beyond Russia, seeking new employment opportunities in Europe and East Asia.

Iran Espionage

Israel Arrests Man From Tajikistan Suspected of Spying for Iran

Israeli police said Thursday that a suspect from Tajikistan who holds a Russian passport had been arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran during the recent war. The suspect, identified as Behrouz Sobirgon, was arrested last month “on suspicion of security offenses involving contact with Iranian intelligence agencies and carrying out security missions under their direction,” police said on Telegram. “The investigation revealed that the suspect maintained contact with an Iranian foreign agent, with most of his security activity taking place during the 'Roaring Lion' war, when he sought to assist Iran in achieving operational gains and advancing its goals on the international stage against the State of Israel,” the Israeli police statement said. “It also emerged that the approach to Bahroz began with an apparently innocent job offer, but he soon realized it was an approach made by an Iranian agent and nevertheless continued contact with him.” Roaring Lion was the name given by Israel to airstrikes by the United States and Israel against Iran that began in February. A fragile ceasefire is currently in place. The statement said prosecutors plan to file a serious indictment against the alleged spy, along with a request for him to be detained during court proceedings in Tel Aviv. The Times of Israel said the Tajik national had informed his Iranian handler about the location of Iranian missile strikes in Israel, provided details about a building complex in Tel Aviv and Haifa port, and tried to photograph a security facility in northern Israel. The newspaper said an investigation was carried out by Israeli police, the Defense Ministry, and Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency. There was no immediate public comment from Tajikistan about the arrest. Israel and Tajikistan do not have embassies in each other’s countries, but maintain diplomatic and other contacts through regional embassies and other channels.

Road Accidents

Highway Crash in Tajikistan Kills Eleven

Eleven people were killed on Thursday when a truck had brake failure and collided with two cars on a highway in Tajikistan, the government said. The accident happened in a rural area near Vahdat city on the Dushanbe-Kulob-Khorog highway at 6:30 a.m., killing the truck driver and a driver and nine passengers in the two cars, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said. Minister Ramazon Rahimzoda, the prosecutor of Vahdat and other officials visited the crash scene, according to the ministry. An investigation was underway. Vahdat is about 20 kilometers east of Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital. The Dushanbe-Kulob-Khorog highway is about 600 kilometers long and traverses mountainous terrain, linking the capital with Khorog, capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region in eastern Tajikistan.

Surrogacy Recruitment

Central Asian Women Recruited Into Georgia’s Surrogacy Market via Social Media

Women from Central Asia are being recruited into Georgia’s surrogacy market through social media, adding a new labor channel to an industry already under pressure from foreign demand and inadequate supervision. A University of Oxford study published in Mobilities identifies Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in that recruitment chain. The author, Dr. Polina Vlasenko of Oxford’s Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), carried out fieldwork in Kazakhstan and Georgia between 2023 and 2024, drawing on more than 100 interviews across the surrogacy and egg donation market. Georgia has allowed surrogacy since 1997. Under Article 143 of the Law of Georgia on Health Care, in vitro fertilization (IVF) may involve a surrogate mother if a woman does not have a uterus and the couple gives written consent. If a child is born, the couple is recognized as the parents. The donor or surrogate mother has no right to be recognized as a parent. That provision gives intended parents direct legal certainty in Georgia, unlike jurisdictions where legal parenthood may require a separate post-birth court process. For women recruited from Central Asia, the difference is in the hidden parts of the process. Opaque recruitment methods can lead into surveillance-style accommodation, while agents often mediate access to the clinic and to payments that may be delayed or disputed. According to a 2020 statement by Georgia’s Ministry of Justice, 98% of people using surrogacy services in Georgia were foreign-citizen couples, while 100% of surrogate mothers were Georgian-citizen women. Before the war, Chinese nationals accounted for 14% of people pursuing surrogacy in Georgia, and Chinese social media later carried accounts of newborns on flights from Tbilisi to Urumqi. Until Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine was considered Europe’s biggest surrogacy hub. By contrast, in December of that year, a Russian law barred foreign clients and stateless people from using the country’s surrogacy system, limiting access to Russian citizens. By 2022, Georgia was already gaining momentum as a reproductive tourism destination, but the war in Ukraine accelerated that rise. As demand grew, recruitment networks began reaching women in Central Asia through social media and private messaging channels. For women recruited from Central Asia, the complexity lies in the online posts and private contacts that turn economic need into pregnancy abroad. Russian-language advertising often uses “surmama,” a shorthand for surrogate mother that now sits inside the market’s online vocabulary. Public posts tied to Georgia programs refer to Tbilisi and Bishkek. Some use Kyrgyz-language wording and hashtags for Kyrgyzstan. The communication network is plentiful in posts yet sparse in detail, as a stack of cash appears in one Instagram post while other accounts use the polished visual language common to fertility advertising online, where smiling young women and clean graphics make paid pregnancy look simple. One Instagram account advertising surrogacy services in Georgia directs users to a WhatsApp number linked to a Kazakhstan-based contact. The account does not establish whether that person recruits women directly or represents a clinic. The WhatsApp profile image offers...

Women's Rights

Dushanbe Opens Criminal Cases Over Underage Marriage in Tajikistan

The authorities in Tajikistan have reported several cases involving the marriage of underage girls, with criminal cases opened in Dushanbe since the beginning of the year over violations of the country’s legal marriage age. According to the Dushanbe branch of the Interior Ministry, law enforcement agencies have identified five cases this year in which parents arranged marriages for their underage daughters. Criminal investigations have been launched in all cases, and inquiries are ongoing. Officials reminded the public that under Article 13 of Tajikistan’s Family Code, the legal age for marriage is 18. The only exception is by court decision, which may lower the marriage age by no more than one year. Despite these restrictions, the authorities say some parents continue to knowingly violate the law by marrying off their daughters before they reach the legal age. The Interior Ministry also stressed that criminal liability applies not only to parents and intermediaries, but also to those who conduct underage marriage ceremonies and to adults entering into marriage with minors. Separately, Dushanbe authorities have registered nine cases under Article 169, which covers marriage with a person below the legal marriage age. Criminal proceedings have been opened in all of them. Police have urged citizens to comply with the law and to respect the rights and legal interests of girls when arranging marriages. Under Article 168 of Tajikistan’s Criminal Code, parents, guardians, and other individuals involved in arranging the marriage of a girl below the legal marriage age can face criminal liability. The law provides for corrective labor for up to two years or restriction of liberty for up to five years. Article 169 covers entering into marriage with a minor or actual cohabitation in such a union. Punishment includes fines ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 calculation units, depending on the annual rate set by the government, or corrective labor for up to two years.