113 Muslim Brotherhood suspects detained in Tajikistan this month alone, says Tajik chief prosecutor

“The detainees include an official from the Isfara administration, imams and about twenty university professors,” Tajik chief prosecutor said. 

Yusuf Rahmon denied rumors that there were employees of President’s Executive office and high-raking officials of various government bodies among the detainees as absolutely baseless.

He further noted that the law enforcement authorities were continuing work on detecting and detaining of members of that organization in Tajikistan.

Recall, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported on January 20 that at least 70 Muslim Brotherhood suspects were detained this month in dozens of raids as Tajik authorities uncovered an alleged Muslim Brotherhood cell operating in Dushanbe as well as in the Sughd and Khatlon provinces.

Referring to its sources, the Prague-based website akhbor.com has identified the names of 18 detainees.  Among them are Ikromsoh Sattorov – senior teacher at the Institute of Languages; Merojiddin Safarov – Doctor of Sciences in Philology, employee of radio; Tojiddin Yoqubov – Candidate of Sciences in Philology, department chair at Tajik National University; Abdulvahhob Abdumannon -- doctoral student at Tajik National University, former teacher at the Islamic University named after Imam Azam; Ismoil Qahhorov (Mullo Ismoil) – theologian, poet, member of Tajik Writers’ Union;  Muhammadjon Ibrohim – head of the Medical examination Center “Rukhafzo” at the Qariyai Bolo Hospital in Dushanbe; and others.

Recall, Tajikistan banned the Muslim Brotherhood as an extremist group in 2006 and it faces a similar ban in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It is not banned in Kyrgyzstan.

It is considered a terrorist organization in Tajikistan, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia but not in the United States or other Western countries.

In 2016, about 20 imams were arrested in the Tajik northern province of Sughd for allegedly being members of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. They were accused of receiving funds from abroad and of spreading the movement’s ideology in Tajikistan, ultimately seeking to overthrow the secular government in the country.