(Berlin, November 20, 2024) Dilmurod Ergashev, a Tajik opposition activist deported from Germany on November 6, 2024, after being refused asylum, is reported to have been provisionally detained for two months by a city court in Dushanbe on unclear charges, Human Rights Watch, Freedom for Eurasia, Norwegian Helsinki Committee, and Abschiebungsreporting NRW said today. Ergashev is currently in a Dushanbe hospital due to medical concerns, a source familiar with his situation told the groups.
Germany should urgently press Tajikistani authorities to release Ergashev or make clear the legal grounds and evidence justifying his detention and ensure that his due process rights are fully respected. This includes access to appropriate and quality medical care and ensuring that he is not mistreated. Ergashev was deported after a German court dismissed concerns, that he and human rights groups had raised, that he would be detained on arrival in Tajikistan.
“Germany is failing to uphold the necessary safeguards to protect those in danger of mistreatment if they are deported,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Ergashev’s participation in protests against Tajikistan in Germany made him a clear target, and his immediate detention is a testament to that. Germany should investigate why this happened.”
In the morning of November 7, German Federal Police officers handed Ergashev over to Tajikistan authorities at the Dushanbe airport. Witnesses told the media that the Tajikistan authorities immediately handcuffed Ergashev and placed a black bag over his head, then put him in a vehicle and drove away. On November 8, a Dushanbe court ordered his provisional detention for two months.
On October 28, Ergashev had been detained in Kleve, a German town near the border with the Netherlands, and on the same day a city court ordered his deportation. Although his previous asylum requests had been denied, Ergashev’s lawyer initiated another asylum request to oppose the deportation order. Upon learning the court had rejected the request and upheld his deportation order, Ergashev reportedly attempted to take his own life by cutting himself in numerous places. Several deep injuries required medical treatment. The deportation still proceeded, however.
Ergashev’s lawyer said that the court questioned whether his opposition activities were genuine, despite Ergashev’s public participation in protests in Germany against the Tajikistan government, and said he was using them to increase the possibility of gaining asylum.
His detention in Tajikistan was not unexpected. In 2023, Germany, on separate occasions, deported two Tajik dissidents, Abdullohi Shamsiddin and Bilol Qurbonaliev, to Tajikistan. Upon arrival, they were immediately detained and later sentenced to 7 and 10 years in prison, respectively, based on bogus charges of attempts to overthrow the constitutional order and organization of criminal groups. Shamsiddin has reportedly been mistreated in detention.
Ergashev has been closely associated with an opposition movement, Group 24, which is banned in Tajikistan and part of the Reforms and Development of Tajikistan movement formed by exiled Tajikistani dissidents. Ergashev has taken part in several demonstrations in Berlin in front of Tajikistan’s embassy, including the September 2023 protest during Tajikistani President Emomali Rahmon’s visit to Germany. These demonstrations were reported in the Tajikistan media, making Ergashev recognizable as an opposition activist.
German authorities should open an inquiry into the circumstances of his deportation and investigate why they allowed sending him to a country where there was a clear danger of torture. International law, including multiple treaties to which Germany is bound, prohibits “refoulement,” returning a person to a country where they are at risk of torture or cruel or inhumane treatment.
Tajikistan authorities systematically persecute opposition members, especially those they see as affiliated with banned movements, such as Group 24, both inside and outside the country. The government regularly targets critics living abroad on charges of extremism and terrorism-related activities, leading to long jail terms and mistreatment if they are forcibly returned. A recent Human Rights Watch report on this type of transnational repression cited Tajikistan as a country of major concern.
“Ergashev’s arrest following his deportation should be a final wake-up call to German authorities to recognize the real risk of rights violations posed by the Tajikistan government and immediately stop the practice of sending peaceful opposition activists to jail in Dushanbe,” Williamson said.
