Former Special Forces Officer Will Not Return to Tajikistan and Does Not Trust Amnesty Promises

Tajikistan’s law enforcement agencies are pressuring the family of a former OMON officer in an attempt to force his return to the country.

Asomudin Rajabov, a former officer of the Special Purpose Police Unit (OMON) of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, stated that officers from the Sarband district police department summoned his 80-year-old blind father and his brother to the police station and demanded that they persuade Rajabov to return to his homeland.

Rajabov served in OMON from 2009 to 2012 and also participated in a government special operation in Badakhshan.

On September 8, in a conversation with Radio Ozodi, Rajabov reported that law enforcement officers came to his relatives and informed them that he had been pardoned and was no longer wanted. However, according to him, no official documents were presented to confirm this, so he does not trust these promises.

“If I have truly been pardoned, then why am I still being sought? I have no intention of returning to Tajikistan,” Asomudin Rajabov stated.

According to him, this is the third time that law enforcement officers have summoned his elderly father to the station in order to pressure him. Rajabov is currently in Armenia and intends to relocate to a third country.

The former OMON officer, after criticizing Tajikistan’s authorities in connection with events in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, was accused of extremism and a criminal case was opened against him. In March, he was detained in Armenia at the request of Tajikistan’s law enforcement agencies, but was released a day later.

International and human rights organizations have repeatedly expressed concern in recent times regarding pressure on opposition figures, political activists, and critics of Tajikistan’s government. Reports from these organizations indicate that in some cases, family members of opposition figures living abroad are summoned for interrogation, subjected to pressure, and persecuted through various methods.