The Norwegian Helsinki Committee has urged the Tajik authorities to disclose the exact whereabouts of Asliddin Sharifov, the brother of the director of an opposition online television station, who was extradited from Russia in early October.
"Tajik authorities must disclose the location of Asliddin [Sharifov] and explain why his relatives have not heard of him since his extradition from Russia," said Berit Lindeman, secretary-general of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.
"If authorities hold [Sharifov], they must also release him or otherwise credibly charge him," she said in a statement.
The statement comes after Sharifov's brother, Shavkat Muhammadi, who is the director of the opposition Payom online TV channel and currently resides in the European Union, told RFE/RL that Tajik officials had refused to provide information about Sharifov's whereabouts.
SEE ALSO: Russia Extradites Brother Of Opposition Tajik TV Director To Dushanbe, Relatives SayPolice in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg arrested Sharifov in September 2022 and extradited him to Tajikistan on October 1, 2023.
Tajik authorities have not commented on the situation around Sharifov.
Muhammadi told the Norwegian Helsinki Committee he is convinced that the Tajik authorities are persecuting his brother as a means to put pressure on him in retaliation for criticism of the government aired on Payom.net, the independent media outlet he leads in exile.
Sharifov's relatives have cited official documents from the Tagilstroi district court in the Russian city of Nizhny Tagil as saying that Sharifov is wanted in Tajikistan for allegedly cooperating with two banned opposition groups -- the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) and the Group 24 movement. The charge stems from his online posts "supporting the two banned groups," the Russian court documents say.
The IRPT, long an influential party with representatives in the Tajik government and parliament, was labeled a terrorist group and banned in Tajikistan in 2015.
Dozens of IRPT officials and supporters have been prosecuted and many of them imprisoned, drawing criticism from human rights groups.
Group 24 was labeled a terrorist and extremist group and banned in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic in 2014. In March 2015, the movement's founder, businessman Umarali Quvatov, was assassinated in Istanbul.
If convicted of cooperating with the banned groups, Sharifov faces up to eight years in prison.
Dozens of Tajik opposition figures and activists living abroad are wanted by the Tajik authorities on charges of terrorism and extremism.
President Emomali Rahmon, who has run the Central Asian country for almost 30 years, has been criticized by international human rights groups over his administration's alleged disregard for independent media, religious freedoms, civil society, and political pluralism.