Tajik media reports quoted the Supreme Court's press service on March 7 as saying that the prison term handed to businessman Abdukhalil Kholiqzoda last month over his autobiography has been extended from 6 1/2 years to nine years.
Kholiqzoda was initially sentenced on February 22 after the court found him guilty of inciting hatred. The additional sentence was handed to him on February 28 on a charge of smuggling. It remains unclear what the latter charge stems from.
The court also ordered Kholiqzoda to pay 76,800 somonis ($7,000).
Kholiqzoda was tried along with two other public figures -- Abduqodir Rustam and Suhrob Rajabzoda -- over writing, editing, and publishing the book Stories Of My Life that highlighted some of the challenges faced by those living in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic, which authorities ordered cleared from bookstores.
SEE ALSO: Three Tajik Public Figures Handed Prison Terms Over BookRustam was sentenced to 4 1/2 years and Suhrob Rajabzoda received one year in prison after the court convicted them of inciting hatred.
There was no official announcement of the verdicts and sentences as the trial was held behind closed doors within a detention center in Dushanbe.
The men were arrested in August last year and went on trial on January 19.
The charges against the trio stemmed from their roles in publishing the book that, among other things, focused on everyday developments in modern Tajikistan, including corruption, migration, and cultural challenges in the Central Asian nation.
Kholiqzoda wrote the book, while Rustam edited the text and Rajabzoda's Er-Graf publishing house published it.
Self-exiled Tajik intellectuals and opposition figures condemned the arrests and the sentencing of the three men, calling the case against them a crackdown on freedom of expression.
Meanwhile, amid a lack of transparency in the country, speculation has risen that the case might be connected to a power struggle among Tajik power holders.
President Emomali Rahmon, who has run Tajikistan for almost 30 years, has been criticized by international human rights groups over his administration's policies toward independent media, religious freedoms, civil society, and political pluralism.
In recent years, several Tajik journalists, rights activists, and opposition politicians have been handed lengthy prison terms on charges seen by rights groups as trumped up and politically motivated.