The justice of Tajikistan condemned Thursday a famous journalist and critic of the capacity with one year of prison for “ incitement to religious hatred ” in this country of central Asia, announced the head of a press union.
Read also: Coronavirus: RSF launches “Observatory 19” for press freedom
Daler Charipov received the sentence after a trial in the capital Dushanbe, Nouriddine Karchiboïev, secretary of the National Association of Independent Media, told AFP. According to Nouriddine Karchiboïev, Daler Charipov rejects the charges brought against him but admits "to have made mistakes ". Justice accuses journalist of the publication of more than 200 articles and comments of an “ extremist ” nature between 2013 and 2019, as well as of having distributed a hundred copies of a text linked to the movement of the Muslim Brotherhood, banned since 2006 in Tajikistan .
Several international human rights NGOs called for the release of Daler Charipov, who was a popular figure on public television before writing articles for independent media in which he notably raised the problems encountered by practicing Muslims in his country. He was beaten in 2012 after trying to create an organization to fight regional divisions in this former Soviet republic.
A poor Sunni majority country, Tajikistan has taken radical measures since 2015 to counter fundamentalism, including forced shaving of the beard and a campaign against the wearing of hijab by women. Ruled by an iron fist by President Emomali Rakhmon since 1992, Tajikistan was included last year by the United States on its list of countries " systematically " violating freedom of worship.