Hot News 2005

July 28

Independent Nerui Sukhan was prevented from publication in Tajikistan

On July 14, Tax police officers together with Ministry of Internal Affairs (MID) officers seized all copies of the newspaper Nerui Sukhan and sealed the Kaihon printing firm’s offices in Dushanbe.

On a separate occasion on 26 January, 2005, the Tax police sealed Kaihon printing firm, preventing the publication of Nerui Sukhan newspaper and seizing the issue of the paper. The paper managed to resume publication 6 months later on 7 July 2005. 

On July 20, it became known that the General Prosecutor’s Office held a press conference, informing that Mukhtor Bokizoda, chief editor for the paper, had to face “defamation” and “insult” charges under the Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Bobodjon Bobohonov, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Tajikistan, has pointed that the Prosecutor’s Office sent an official warning to Bokizoda, demanding that he stop publishing materials, similar to those published earlier in the paper, which contained baseless accusations against state officials and private citizens.

Talking to a NANSMIT monitoring reporter, Mukhtor Bokizoda confirmed that on February 27 the State Revenues Ministry’s Tax police department filed charges against him under article 253, part 2, item b (Inflicting material damages by means of fraud and abuse of trust.) The Procuracy closed investigation in the case and is going to take the case to the court.

On July 2005, Mukhtor Bokizoda issued a statement to the President, Prosecutor General and international organizations, saying he was unable to carry out his work within the past 6 months, as he was subjected to regular audits by the Tax police department. He believes that the criminal charges filed against him were related to his work and were biased: “Some Ministerial Departments don’t like our critical materials, and they, therefore, try to exert pressure on us, journalists, to avoid justice.”

Mukhtor Bokizoda called on the President and the Prosecutor General to check on the current situation and allow him to continue his work for the public good.

As for the defamation and insult charges, Mukhtor Bokizoda said that the Prosecutor General might have been saying about the earlier charges that were filed against the Nerui Sukhan’s editorial board and journalists. In 2004 journalist Zarif Habibov was sentenced to 3 years in prison on defamation charges (article 135) for publishing article “Dear President, be careful of people close to you.”

On 31 May deputy editor of the paper, Vahhob Odinayev, received a 1 year rehabilitation order and 30% deduction from his salary to the state budget under article 322, part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan.

On 19 January, the court ruled that another reporter for Nerui Sukhan, Nuriddin Aminov, pays 50 thousand somoni ($16 thousand) in damages to Abdullayev, deputy chair of the Judicial Law Department in Tajik State National University.

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