Buzurgmehr Yorov
Tajik human rights lawyer and member of the opposition Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan, he represented IRPT members, publicly revealed their torture in pre-trial detention.
Serves his term at Vahdat colony YaS 3/1
Yorov was charged with fraud related charges and ‘Public invitation to change the constitutional system by violence’ (article 307 of Criminal Code of Tajikistan). An Internal Affairs Ministry spokesperson said the alleged fraud occurred in July 2010, when Yorov had purportedly received US$4,000 from a resident of the city of Istaravshan.
The authorities classified Yorov’s case as “top secret” on 14.10.2015. The trial was closed to the public. In 2016, Yorov was sentenced to 28 years in prison, but his sentence was reduced by four years in 2021 due to an amnesty law. Yorov was initially sentenced to 23 years in prison in October 2016 on charges of issuing public calls for the overthrow of the government and inciting social unrest. That was later extended by five years after a court in Dushanbe found him guilty of contempt of court and insulting a government official. On 26 November 2019, the 28 year prison sentence was shortened by six years as part of a mass amnesty in Tajikistan. It was reduced again by four years in October 2021 as part of another amnesty. On 6 April 2023, the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs opened a new criminal case against Yorov. The new criminal case was initiated under Article 247, part 4, clauses “a” and “b”, of the Criminal Code (repeated large-scale fraud committed), allegedly at the request of a prisoner who served his sentence alongside Yorov in the Vahdat colony YaS 3/1.
In mid-November 2022, Yorov was transferred from Vahdat colony, where he had been serving his sentence to a maximum-security prison in Dushanbe.
Since being incarcerated he has not received any proper medical care. In 2020 in relation with COVID 19 pandemic Lawyers for Lawyers requested his immediate release citing health concerns. Since then there is no reliable information of his health condition.
