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.
