Watchdog

KHUJAND, Tajikistan -- A BBC reporter in the northern Tajik province of Sughd has been sentenced to three years imprisonment -- but set free under an amnesty law, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports.

On October 14, Urunboy Usmonov was found guilty of failing to inform the authorities about his contacts with the banned Islamic organization, Hizb ut-Tahrir. The journalist denies the charges and is expected to appeal the verdict.

Usmonov said he was tortured during his monthlong pretrial detention this summer.

The 59-year-old journalist and his employer maintain that any contact Usmonov had with Hizb ut-Tahrir was entirely for journalistic purposes.

Four other men were tried along with Usmonov in the same court in the northern Tajik town of Khujand. The men were found guilty of Hizb ut-Tahrir membership and were given prison sentences ranging between 20 and 22 years.

Earlier, in a separate court in Khujand, another Tajik reporter, Mahmadyusuf Ismoilov, was barred from journalistic work for three years and ordered to pay a 35,800-somoni (approximately $7,100) fine for causing moral damages with his articles that criticized local authorities.

In an interview with RFE/RL's Tajik Service, Johann Bihr of Reporters Without Borders welcomed the journalists' release, saying the authorities were "using the judiciary to try and silence" them.

"They never committed any offense. They never committed any crime, and they should not have been condemned," Bihr said.

"Quite the opposite, they should have been compensated for the harm they received, Ismoilov for being jailed almost one year and Usmonov for being jailed one month an being tortured. So this is really unacceptable."

DUSHANBE -- A court in Tajikistan's northern town of Khujand has freed a journalist who was facing 16 years imprisonment on charges related to his professional activities.

The court, however, barred Mahmadyusuf Ismoilov from journalistic work for three years, and ordered him to pay the equivalent of $7,100 for causing moral damages.

Ismoilov indicated that he will appeal the court's decision, which was made on October 14.

"I am not entirely happy with this verdict," he said. "Why do they fine me? What for? Why do they bar me from journalistic activities for three years? Can they silence the mass media? That is not the right thing to do. We serve the people, and therefore our work benefits the government. We were fighting against the prosecutors."

The 51-year-old reporter for "Nuri Zindagi" ("Light of Light), a local weekly in the northern Asht district had been charged with criminal libel and insulting public officials, extortion, and incitement of "regional hatred." He had been in pretrial detention since November 2010.

Media rights groups maintained that Ismoilov was targeted for criticizing local authorities.

Ismoilov's case has prompted international condemnations and calls for his immediate release.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has said a harsh verdict on Ismoilov would have an "enormous chilling effect" on all other journalists in Tajikistan.

Ismoilov's case has also garnered attention because it has run at the same time as the trial of a BBC journalist, Urunboy Usmonov, who is accused of ties to a banned Islamist group in a case in which authorities have already acknowledged irregularities.