LAWYER'S ARREST COULD SIGNAL GOV'T TIGHTENING SCREWS ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L DUSHANBE 001701

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/20/2015
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM TI
SUBJECT: LAWYER'S ARREST COULD SIGNAL GOV'T TIGHTENING SCREWS ON
DISSENT


CLASSIFIED BY: Richard Hoagland, Ambassador, US Embassy
Dushanbe, State.
REASON: 1.4 (d)


1. (U) Fayzinoso Vohidova, a well-known lawyer and an active
member of the Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan (SDPT),was
arrested and charged by the Sughd regional prosecutor's office
with one criminal act for forgery, and production and sale of
forged documents, which includes practicing law with a false
diploma from Moscow State University. Media reports and local
NGO workers speculated she was arrested due to her political
activity. Vohidova was a candidate in the February
parliamentary elections until she was disqualified on a
technicality. She is being detained while the case is under
investigation. Her husband and lawyer have visited her on
multiple occasions.


2. (C) Vohidova's lawyer, Bakhtiyor Narulloev, told Frank
Hespe, a lawyer with the American Bar Association/ Central
European and Eurasia Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI),that Vohidova
believes the prosecution is personally, not politically,
motivated, because she has won a number of high-profile cases
against the local prosecutor's office. Narulloev explained the
prosecutor's office threatened to contact over 300 of Vohidova's
clients to search for evidence of impropriety. She plans to
formally admit guilt in order to avoid such action. (NOTE:
According to John Hickey, Country Director of ABA/CEELI, it is
possible her diploma is forged; many lawyers practice without
legitimate documents in Tajikistan. END NOTE)


3. (C) However, despite pleading guilty, Vohidova maintains her
innocence. She believes the Moscow prosecutor's office, which
works closely with the Tajikistan prosecutor's office, may have
doctored the evidence or pressured Moscow State University Law
School to provide false information. She intends to travel to
Moscow upon her release to prove her innocence. Narulloev
reported Vohidova does not want additional media attention and
is urging supporters not to appeal on her behalf through the
media. Rather, she would prefer NGOs and embassies to contact
the government and prosecutor's office.


4. (U) BACKGROUND: Vohidova has been an active lawyer in the
Sughd region since 1998 and heads the Khojand Legal Advice
Center. She has written several articles criticizing the
government, particularly the regional prosecutor's office. In
March 2005, she represented two members of the SDPT from the
Resolve District who were arrested and imprisoned on charges of
insulting a judge and resistance to authority. Vohidova herself
was a leading candidate in the February 2005 parliamentary
elections from the Ghaffurov District. However, she was
disqualified from the race based on a technicality, for not
reporting all of her husband's assets on the registration forms.


5. (U) In addition, she is a member of the Citizens Rights
Advocacy Network (CRAN),which is a DRL- funded project of
ABA/CEELI. Her NGO, Center for Support of Legal and Economic
Reforms in Tajikistan, received ABA/CEELI funding for an
advocacy campaign to improve the status of non-citizens in the
Ferghana Valley. In the past two months, she has advocated on
behalf of those accused in a trafficking-in-persons case.


6. (SBU) COMMENT: Vohidova's assertion that her arrest was
personally motivated is plausible. However, her case inevitably
sends a message that unauthorized political activism that annoys
the powers that be is unwelcome in Tajikistan. END COMMENT.

HOAGLAND


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