TAJIKISTAN: NDI DEBRIEFS RAKHIMBEKOV ON HIS DETENTION,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSHANBE 000861

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EUR/ACE, DRL
NSC FOR MILLARD, MERKEL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/10/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR EAID KDEM TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN: NDI DEBRIEFS RAKHIMBEKOV ON HIS DETENTION,
EXPULSION


CLASSIFIED BY: Richard E. Hoagland, Ambassador, EXEC, Embassy
Dushanbe.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Embassy Dushanbe received the following memo dated May 5
from National Democratic Institute headquarters in Washington.
Although it arrived via unclassified e-mail, we are sending it
through the classified network because of the sensitivity of the
information.


2. (C) BEGIN TEXT:

NDI's Country Director in Tajikistan, Nurul Rakhimbekov, was
arrested and detained on the evening of April 26 at the Dushanbe
airport as he was preparing to board a domestic flight for a
political party training. Nurul was detained and interrogated
for three full days, after which he was deported to his native
Kazakhstan.

Nurul was charged with engaging in sexual relations with a
minor. He has asserted that the allegations have no basis in
truth, and it is clear that the arrest was politically
motivated. It fits into a long-standing pattern of efforts by
the government of Tajikistan to shut down NDI's office.

On Monday, May 1, Nurul Rakhimbekov called to provide details on
the circumstances of his arrest, detention, and release. The
following is a detailed summary of the information he provided.
When Nurul visits Washington, DC during the week of May 14, we
will obtain further details and verify that the below
information is accurate.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26

At 6pm on Wednesday, April 26, Nurul was approached by four men
at the Dushanbe airport as he was preparing to travel on a
domestic flight to Khujand for a political party training. They
stated that they were with the Police Department dealing with
organized crime and insisted that he come with them for
questioning. They would not say where they planned to take him.
When Nurul asked for their IDs, only two of the men would
provide them. The other two men refused to show their IDs. Nurul
immediately called Elizabeth Horst, Political Officer with the
US Embassy in Dushanbe, and she said that she would leave for
the airport. Nurul told the men that he would not go with them
until Elizabeth arrived. However, they would not wait, and
applied force to drag him toward a waiting car. At this time,
one of the men searched his pockets and screamed profanities at
him.

They forced him into a car and took him to the Ministry of
Security building. When they arrived, one of the men told others
that Nurul had threatened to kill him. Once inside the building,
Nurul was told that he was being charged with engaging in sexual
relations with a minor. He was also told he would spend three
days in detention.

After two hours in a waiting room, he was taken to the Head of
Investigation's office, where there were four people - the Head
of Investigation, two agents, and a consular officer from the
Kazakh Embassy. One of the agents asked him if he agreed to let
the Kazakh consular officer remain in the room. Nurul thought it
was suspicious that the Kazakh consular officer was already at
the Ministry of Security, before he had requested any help from
the Embassy. He has suggested that this could be evidence that
the Kazakh Embassy had advance knowledge of and perhaps
collaborated in his arrest.

Nurul requested the presence of a US Embassy representative,
since he was an employee of a US organization, but the agents
refused his request. They then asked him to sign a protocol of
arrest, which he refused to sign.

Two women were then brought into the room and were asked several
questions. The first woman said she did not have sexual
relations with Nurul and did not see the second woman have
sexual relations with him. The second woman did say she had
sexual relations with Nurul.

(At this point in the conversation, we asked Nurul if this was
true)

According to Nurul, he had a friend from Almaty staying with

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him. Two nights prior to his arrest, he and his friend had held
a small party in Nurul's apartment. The first woman mentioned
above was Nurul's friend's girlfriend and was at the apartment
the night in question. However, Nurul said that he did not know
and had never seen the second woman.

One of the agents mentioned that Nurul's friend had been
questioned by authorities but had been permitted to leave the
country.

The agents then began asking questions about Nurul's address and
family in Almaty.

From this point on, the questioning focused on NDI and its
activities in Tajikistan. The agents said they were suspicious
of NDI and had been watching NDI's activities closely.

At about 10:45 pm, they ended questioning and told him he would
be taken to a pre-trial detention facility. He told the agents
that he would not eat or drink until he was granted access to a
US Embassy representative.

When he arrived at the detention facility, he was searched, and
his shoelaces, belt, passport and personal items were taken from
him. His cell was a small room with only a dirty mat and dirty
pillow in it - conditions Nurul described as "horrible." He was
not able to sleep the entire night.

THURSDAY, APRIL 27

In the morning, guards brought food to him, but he refused to
eat it. He was then taken to the Ministry of Security building
and into the Head of Investigation's office. Another high-level
officer was there - someone who focused on international
investigations and who was familiar with a number of
international organizations.

Over the course of approximately seven hours, Nurul was
questioned by six different officers in turns. They only asked
him questions related to his work and the work of NDI in
Tajikistan. He gave them basic information about NDI's
programming, emphasizing that there was nothing secretive about
NDI's work. The officers seemed to have fairly detailed
information about NDI's trainings and events in Dushanbe, and
referred to previous conversations with local NDI staff (which
NDI-DC is aware of).

The officers asked why he was working with Rano (the head of
NDI's civic partner, Women's Political Discussion Club) and
Latif (the head of another NDI partner, the Public Commission
for Election Monitoring). The officers said that Rano and Latif
were only interested in getting money and had no interest in
strengthening democracy in Tajikistan.
The officers knew Nurul was bringing money from Almaty every
month and wanted to know how much he was bringing. He gave them
an estimate of between $10,000 to $15,000, which is accurate.
They also asked how much the U.S. was planning to spend on
democracy-related activities this coming year. Of course, he
didn't have that figure on the top of his head.

The agents said that by working for NDI, Nurul was conducting
illegal activities, because NDI is not registered as an NGO with
the Tajik government. Nurul told them about our many attempts at
registration, but this did not stop their accusations.

They told him that his fate was in his hands - he would be freed
if he would cooperate with them and provide useful information
concerning NDI's activities. They threatened that, if was
uncooperative, they could put drugs in his pocket and accuse of
him drug possession. They also said that if NDI-Tajikistan's
former country director, Gegham Sargsyan, were to return to
Tajikistan, they would "give him trouble" as well.

At about 7 pm, the officers took Nurul down to the Head of
Investigation's office, where there was a woman and what
appeared to be several journalists with cameras. The two women
(girlfriend of Nurul's friend and the apparent minor) were also
in the room. One officer began an official speech in Tajik,
apparently beginning a press conference. Nurul believes the
officer summarized the charges against him. The two women were
asked questions and provided similar information as they did the
night before. Nurul was then asked questions by the journalists
about his activities with NDI. The officers then said that,
because of Tajikistan's good relations with Kazakhstan, they
were willing to let Nurul out of jail and would drop all charges

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against him.

Nurul believes the press conference was faked and was an attempt
to pressure him to divulge "useful" information about NDI's
activities. He later saw the "journalists" walking around on
another floor of the Ministry of Security building, and that
they appeared to be employees of the Ministry of Security.

Nurul was then taken back to his cell in the detention facility.
One of the "journalists" was also put in his cell. The
journalist told Nurul that he had been detained because he was
part of the "free" press. Nurul said it was clear that the
"journalist" was acting and was only there to extract candid
information from Nurul. He was taken out of the cell after a few
hours.

That night Nurul was given a clean sheet and a clean pillow
cover. He refused food and water again.

FRIDAY, APRIL 28

There were no interrogations on Friday. At about lunchtime, a
guard brought him food, but Nurul refused to eat or drink again.
He was feeling noticeably weak as the day progressed. The guards
would not let him use the restroom. In the evening, he was taken
to the facility's doctor. It was difficult for him to walk in
his weakened state. The doctor checked his heart rate, blood
pressure, temperature, etc. Nurul told the doctor that he would
not allow the doctor to inject him with anything. The doctor
exchanged a smile with the guard, but said that he would not
inject Nurul. Nurul believes this was another attempt to scare
him into "cooperating."

SATURDAY, APRIL 29

At about 1pm, Nurul was removed from his cell and brought to a
waiting room, where he met with one of the officers who had
arrested him on Wednesday and the Kazakh consular officer. The
consular officer explained that the Kazakh Embassy had conducted
difficult negotiations with the Ministry of Security and had
reached an agreement for his release. If Nurul would agree not
to contact any of his US contacts (presumably NDI and the US
Embassy) while he was still in Tajikistan, the Ministry of
Security would release him and allow him to fly to Almaty,
Kazakhstan. They threatened that if he tried to reach any of his
US contacts, they would restart the investigation and make it
more difficult for him to be released. They threatened that they
could easily change the charge to rape.

The Kazakh consular officer said he would return at 6 pm (72
hours after Nurul's arrest) to take Nurul to the Kazakh Embassy
for the night, and that Nurul would fly to Almaty the next day.

At about 6pm, Nurul was released from the detention facility.
The Kazakh official never came; instead, four Ministry of
Security officers took Nurul to the Hotel Tajikistan. Two
officers guarded him throughout the night.

SUNDAY, APRIL 30

In the morning, Nurul was taken to the Dushanbe airport. At the
airport, Ministry of Security officers returned his passport and
took him through security and customs. They again asked for his
cooperation in obtaining useful information about NDI. They also
said that this incident wouldn't have happened if NDI would have
been registered as an NGO. The agents also said that if our
local staff continued working, the agents would "give them
trouble."

The flight from Dushanbe to Almaty was uneventful, and Nurul
traveled from the airport in Almaty to his family's home with no
problems.

Since returning to Almaty, Nurul has been recovering and has
been keeping a low profile at his family's home.

END TEXT.
HOAGLAND