Rustami Joni

Affiliated media: Independent journalist

Incident date: February 22, 2023

Attack type:

• Prosecution for extremism, links with terrorists, inciting hatred, high treason, calling for the overthrow of the constitutional order, rehabilitation of Nazism (2)

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Radio Ozodi

Location: Tajikistan, Dushanbe

Additional information:

A criminal case has been opened in Tajikistan against Rustami Joni, a journalist living in Prague. Authorities accuse him of publicly calling for violent change of the constitutional order and mercenarism. «On February 22, my mother-in-law, who lives in Dushanbe, was invited to the Sino District Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and told that the police had filed a case against me under Article 307 and Article 401 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Tajikistan», — the journalist said. Article 307 (public calls for violent change in the constitutional order of the Republic of Tajikistan) presumes a three-to-eight-year prison sentence, while Article 201 (mercenarism) presumes a five-to-twelve-year sentence. Rustami Joni believes that the case was brought against him because of his criticism of the actions of the Tajik authorities.