DUSHANBE -- A Tajik blogger from the Central Asian nation's restive Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO), whom Moscow police "released from custody," has reportedly been abducted and taken to Dushanbe, where he is currently under arrest, his relatives say.
Relatives of Komyor Mirzoev told RFE/RL over the weekend that the Prosecutor-General’s Office in Moscow’s Lefortovo district had ruled on September 7 to release Mirzoev, concluding “there are no grounds to extradite Mirzoev to Takistan.”
The resolution obtained by RFE/RL says Mirzoev, who was arrested in the Russian capital on September 5, is wanted in Tajikistan on a charge of taking part in the activities of a criminal group. If convicted, the blogger could face up to 12 years in prison.
His relatives told RFE/RL on September 11 that Tajik special agents had abducted the blogger after his release and forcibly took him to Dushanbe.
A source in the Interior Ministry confirmed to RFE/RL that Mirzoev is currently in a detention center in the Tajik capital.
Mirzoev’s blogs have been critical of the Central Asian nation's government and mostly focused on developments in his native GBAO, where mass demonstrations led to a deadly crackdown on protesters in May.
Earlier in September, relatives of another GBAO native, Mamadbek Atobekov, said he had been detained in Moscow. His current whereabouts are unknown, while his relatives say they fear that he might be extradited to Tajikistan and face illegal incarceration and arbitrary prosecution there.
Last month, another Tajik blogger from the GBAO, Maqsud Ghayosov, was arrested in Moscow and has been held incommunicado since.
The Pamir Daily News website, which monitors developments in the GBAO, says at least 20 of the region's natives have been detained in Moscow and forcibly brought to Tajikistan in the last six months.
Relatives and rights defenders say that the arrests in Moscow were most likely linked to mass protests in the GBAO that were violently dispersed by the authorities in May.
Deep tensions between the Tajik government and residents of the volatile GBAO have simmered since a five-year civil war broke out shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Protests are rare in tightly controlled Tajikistan, where President Emomali Rahmon has ruled with an iron fist for nearly three decades.
The latest crackdown on activists in the GBAO followed protests initially sparked by anger over the lack of an investigation into the 2021 death of an activist while in police custody and the refusal by regional authorities to consider the resignation of regional Governor Alisher Mirzonabot and Mayor Rizo Nazarzoda of the GBAO's capital, Khorugh.
The rallies intensified after one of the protesters, 29-year-old Zamir Nazrishoev, was killed by police on May 16, prompting the authorities to launch what they called a "counterterrorist operation."
The escalating violence in the region has sparked calls for restraint from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Western diplomatic missions in Tajikistan, and human rights groups.