DUSHANBE -- Eight former top officials, politicians, and public figures in Tajikistan have gone on trial behind closed doors on charges of plotting to forcibly seize power, calling for mass disorder, and inciting hatred.
The trial, which began on November 14 in a pretrial detention center in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, includes former Foreign Minister Hamrohkhon Zarifi, former Foreign Ministry spokesman Abulfaiz Atoi, and former parliament speaker Akbarshoh Iskandarov.
The Supreme Court officials who are hearing the case have refused to comment to RFE/RL, while the classification of the materials by the Tajik Prosecutor-General’s Office means the exact details of the charges brought against the eight defendants are not known.
The Tajik government has brutally cracked down on dissent in recent years, jailing opposition politicians or forcing them into self-exile. Dozens of independent journalists, activists, and government critics have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
SEE ALSO: Germany Deports Tajik Activist, Sending Chill Among Other Dissidents AbroadSenior politicians on trial in the case also include the ex-leader of the Democratic Party, Saidjafar Usmonzoda, Democratic Party of Tajikistan Deputy Chairman Ahmadshoh Komilzoda, and Social Democratic Party Deputy Chairman Shokirjon Hakimov.
Two former top officers of the State Committee for National Security, Nuramin Ghanizoda and Jamshed Boev, are also being tried in the case.
All of the defendants were arrested over the past year. It is unknown how seven of them pleaded. Associates of Hakimov, who is a lawyer, have said he has rejected the charges.
Relatives of the defendants were not allowed to attend the trial, while lawyers who arrived at the detention center refused to talk to journalists.
In 2015, Tajik authorities banned the main political opposition, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, as well as Group 24 -- an organization that had been gaining popularity among younger Tajiks.
Both parties were branded as “terrorist” and the government of autocratic President Emomali Rahmon continues to target their members and supporters both at home and outside the country.
The founder of the Group 24, businessman Umarali Quvatov was assassinated in Turkey in 2015.
The Social Democratic Party has been officially registered in Tajikistan, but it has been under constant political and financial pressure. Controlled elections have made it impossible for the party to ever win a seat in parliament.
Rahmon, who has run Tajikistan for almost three decades, has been criticized by international human rights groups over his regime's stifling of political pluralism, independent media, religious freedoms, and civil society.