Another Tajik Activist Handed Lengthy Prison Term

Tajik activist Ramzi Vazirbekov (file photo)

Tajik activist Ramzi Vazirbekov has been sentenced to 13 years in prison on charges of calls for the forced change of the constitutional order and being a member of a criminal group. Vazirbekov's relatives told RFE/RL on November 8 that he was sentenced in Dushanbe three days earlier, the same day that Ramzi's brother, Oraz Vazirbekov, got 16 years in prison on extremism charges. Vazirbekov's brothers, who reject the charges, were forcibly taken to Tajikistan from Moscow in July, amid a crackdown on activists from their native Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region. To read the original report by RFE/RL's Tajik Service, click here.