A jailed member of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) died in a prison outside Dushanbe late on January 4, his family said. Rajabali Komilov, 63, had been in prison since 2018 serving a 10-year sentence for membership in a banned organization. He was the head of the IRPT office in the southern Danghara district. Tajikistan outlawed the opposition group in 2015, branding it a terrorist organization, a claim the party denies. The cause of Komilov’s death is not known, but medical sources told RFE/RL he had been ill and partially paralyzed in recent months. To read the original report by RFE/RL’s Tajik Service, click here.
