A BBC reporter in Tajikistan was sentenced to three years in jail on Friday for belonging to a banned Islamist group, but he was immediately granted an amnesty. There had been widespread Western criticism that Urunboy Usmonov's trial had been politically motivated.
Usmonov, who had worked for the Central Asian service of the British Broadcasting Corporation for 10 years, was arrested in June and charged with membership of the outlawed Hizb ut-Tahrir. or Party of Liberation. After being sentenced to three years in jail, Usmonov, who was also found guilty of failing to inform security bodies of meeting Hizb ut-Tahrir members, was immediately released under an amnesty law to mark the 20th anniversary of Tajikistan's independence from the Soviet Union.
"We believe that the sentence was directly linked to the professional activity of my client," defence lawyer Faiziniso Vokhidova told Reuters by telephone from the regional capital Khujand. "The sentence is unjust and we will appeal it."
Tajikistan, an impoverished and predominantly Muslim former Soviet republic of 7.5 million, has launched a crackdown on religious groups and imprisoned 158 people on charges of extremism last year alone. Many of those jailed were accused of belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir, or Party of Liberation. The group says it uses only peaceful methods to achieve its goal of establishing a global caliphate, or theocratic Muslim state.
Tajikistan, which shares a 1,340 km (840 mile) border with Afghanistan, has accused such groups of stoking unrest. BBC World Service condemned the guilty verdict handed down by the court in the northern Sughd province and said it wanted a complete exoneration of Usmonov and restoration of his reputation as a highly respected journalist.
"We also intend to press for answers over the torture and mistreatment Urunboy suffered while in custody and to raise real concerns about shortcomings in the legal process," said Peter Horrocks, director of BBC Global News. When questioned during his trial, Usmonov told the court he had been beaten in custody and that security officers had burnt his arms with cigarettes, the BBC said.
He also said he had been forced to sign a confession which had been dictated to him, it added. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) had characterised the arrest of Usmonov, who suffers from heart and other health problems, as "an attempt to censor" reporting on sensitive issues.