Tajikistan News Gazette

Tajik activist Ramzi Vazirbekov has been sentenced to 13 years in prison on charges of calls for the forced change of the constitutional order and being a member of a criminal group. Vazirbekov’s relatives told RFE/RL on November 8 that he was sentenced in Dushanbe three days earlier, the same day that Ramzi’s brother, Oraz Vazirbekov, got 16 years in prison on extremism charges. Vazirbekov’s brothers, who reject the charges, were forcibly taken to Tajikistan from Moscow in July, amid a crackdown on activists from their native Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region.

Copyright (c) 2015. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.