Anora Sarkorova and her husband Rustamjon Joniyev are two well-known long-time journalists from Tajikistan. Evading persecution at the hands of Tajik authorities, the couple has spent recent years in Europe where they have continued their journalistic endeavors. Prior to leaving Tajikistan, Sarkorova spent 20 years working the BBC Russian-language service in Tajikistan, while Joniyev among other things worked for the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Tajik service. In exile, the two have written extensively about the abysmal human rights situation in their home country, and have provided western news outlets with credible and timely information on the situation in Tajikistan.
Since late 2021, Tajik authorities have been cracking down with increasing brutality in Tajikistan’s autonomous Gorno-Badakhsan region (GBAO) – as the couple have kept covering the expanding human rights crisis in GBAO, authorities are lashing out against their family members remaining in the country, summoning them to interrogations, threatening them and otherwise seeking to intimidate them.
– The pressure against Sarkorova and Joniyev’s family members is just the latest in a long series of attacks on freedom of expression and journalism in Tajikistan, says Berit Lindeman, Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. – This is what happens when authoritarian regimes face no serious consequences for their human rights violations, I call on Washington and Brussels to include Tajik officials in their relevant sanctions list.
On February 22 this year, the Interior Ministry summoned Ms. Rizakhotun Nikadamova, the elderly mother of Anora Sarkorova, to the Sino District Police Department in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. At the police station, officers told her that her daughter and son in law are traitors and enemies of Tajikistan. The officers informed her that authorities are preparing a case against her son in law, Mr. Rustamjon Joniyev, on charges under articles 307.3 and 401 of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan, namely of “participation in an extremist organization” and “hiring of mercenaries”, charges that carry lengthy prison sentences. The officers held her for around three hours before they let her go.
Then, a few weeks later, on March 23, officers from the Interior Ministry again called up Ms. Nikadamova, and again demanded that she come to the offices of the police department. This time she brought with her her son, Mr. Eradzh Sarkorov. The police held the two for four-five hours and subjected them to various threats and intimidation attempts. An investigator with the Interior Ministry, who identified himself as Hakim Shafiyev, told the two that authorities will seek to have Rusmanjon Joniyev arrested and delivered to Tajikistan through the Interpol – a system regularly abused by Tajik authorities to retaliate against abroad-based critics. Shafiyev also told the two that he knows the personal details of Ms. Sarkorova’s two underage daughters, including their names, age and where they go to school in Europe. He then went on to demand that Ms. Nikadamova disclose full information about all her other children, as well as their children, including where they live.
During the interrogation, Shafiyev also leveled direct threats at the two – he told them that “no one is protected”, and that “relatives will have to answer for the actions of their relatives”. As outlined below, this is not the first time Tajik authorities harass the relatives of Sarkorova and Joniyev – last year they were also interrogated by the police and the organized-crime unit. Referring to last year’s interrogation, Shafiyev told them that “soon the treatment you received by the organized-crime unit will seem like a fairy tale. Now we will show you…” While threatening the two, Shafiyev also attempted to press them to convince Mr. Joniyev to return “voluntarily” to Tajikistan. If he were to return to Tajikistan, according to Shafiyev, authorities would release him after 20 days on the condition that he “admits his guilt” and record a video confession asking forgiveness for his alleged transgressions – the grave charges against him notwithstanding. Before allowing them to leave the police department, Shafiyev also threatened Joniyev’s father – he said “once we wrap up the case against Joniyev, we will call up his father. Then you will see what we will do with him”.
Indeed, Mr. Joniyev’s father found himself in the authorities’ crosshairs already late last year. On the verge of New Year’s, law enforcement officers arrived at the home of Sayburkhon Joniyev in Tajikistan’s Rasht District. Sayburkhon Joniyev is the elderly father of Rustamjon Joniyev, and was bedridden with illness at the time. Ignoring his condition, the officers forced him into a car and placed him between two officers from Tajikistan’s organized-crime unit, known colloquially by its Russian-language acronym “UBOP”. The UBOP officers then drove him to Dushanbe (around 180 km away). In Dushanbe, he was held for around eleven hours at the UBOP offices, where investigators took turns interrogating him. During the interrogations, the UBOP officers threatened to imprison him and his other children. They also forced him to record a video in which he would disown his son and condemn the actions of Anora Sarkorova and Rustam Joniyev.
The harassment of Sarkorova and Joniyev’s relatives commenced last summer. At this time, the intensified crackdown in GBAO had been going on for some time, while Sarkorova and Joniyev had been covering the events through their journalistic channels in Europe. On June 22, 2022, officers from the Interior Ministry went to the family home of Anora Sarkorova’s uncle in the Rushon district in east Tajikistan. The officers demanded to be told where Ms. Sarkorova grew up, who her parents are, and where her family members live. On June 27, officers from Tajikistan’s organized-crime unit, “UBOP”, came to the home of Anora Sarkorova’s mother in Dushanbe. There, they demanded that she and her son come with them to their offices in Dushanbe. The officers held them there for about four-five hours, interrogating them about Ms. Sarkorova’s journalistic activities and personal and family life. Before allowing them to leave, the UBOP officers attempted to press them to convince Ms. Sarkorova to cease writing about the authorities. They also called Sarkorova a “traitor to her homeland”.
The targeting of Sarkorova and Joniyev’s family fits a long-established pattern in which Tajik authorities retaliate against relatives of abroad-based critics. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee has regularly been reporting on similar cases in recent years, and has documented a brutal practice in which Tajik authorities strike against exiled dissidents through pressure on their family members back home. In its newly published report on transnational repression, Freedom House analyses the practice of authoritarian regimes targeting dissidents abroad, looking at data collected since 2014. According to the extensive research done by Freedom House, Tajikistan is among the top perpetrator states.