Watchdog

A prominent Tajik journalist has been sentenced to eight months in prison for breaching a court order and illegally leaving the country, his lawyer says.

Khayrullo Mirsaidov was sentenced in absentia by the Khujand city court on January 11, the lawyer told RFE/RL.

Mirsaidov was released from prison in August 2018, after his 12-year sentence was converted to a $8,500 fine and community service in a case widely seen as politically motivated.

He was ordered to pay the state 20 percent of any official salary he receives in Tajikistan for the next two years.

"I told the court that Mirsaidov had left the country to get medical treatment abroad," defense lawyer Bakhtiyor Nasrulloev told RFE/RL on January 12.

"But the officials protested that he had left without telling the authorities. They said he was required to provide medical documentation and obtain the authorities' permission to go abroad," Nasrulloev said.

Mirsaidov's December 2017 arrest on financial charges brought condemnation from domestic and international groups -- including Reporters Without Borders, the National Association of Independent Mass Media in Tajikistan, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International.

Mirsaidov said the charges were filed in retaliation for his critical reporting about government corruption.

His arrest came shortly after he had published an open letter accusing senior officials of corruption in his native Sughd Province.

Amnesty International at the time described him as "a prisoner of conscience who is being punished solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression."

He was sentenced on July 11 after being found guilty of embezzling and misusing state funds and of making false reports to police.

After his release under international pressure in August, Mirsaidov said he was unhappy with the court's ruling and insisted he should be acquitted of all charges, rather than having to face a fine and restrictions on his ability to earn a living in the future.

Mirsaidov is an independent journalist and a former correspondent of Asia-Plus and Germany's Deutsche Welle radio.

He also led the Tajik team for KVN, a stand-up comedy competition that originated among university students in the Soviet Union and is still popular in many former Soviet republics.

Authorities in Russia’s Khabarovsk region say they are investigating allegations that several police officers carried the coffin of a local gang leader during his funeral and that employees of the prosecutors’ office also attended the funeral.

The allegations emerged on social media after a video was posted on YouTube on January 8 that shows the funeral procession -- a large crowd of people walking on a motorway followed by several vehicles.

Pallbearers can be seen carrying the coffin. But the footage was recorded from a distance and it was not clear whether any of the pallbearers were wearing police uniforms.

A female voice in the video says the footage shows the funeral procession of Yury Zarubin, who is known by the nickname Zaruba and was buried on January 8 in the city of Amursk.

The woman who speaks in the video also claims that workers dispersed sand ahead of the funeral procession to de-ice the snow-covered highway.

Some viewers commented that several police officers and employees of the prosecutors' office attended the funeral.

The press office for the regional police has denied that any law enforcement officials were present at the funeral.

Irina Shchyogoleva, the head of the press office, said on January 10 that police are investigating the video posted under the YouTube username "ihar felyzen."

She said the person who posted footage has previously been listed by police as a suspected criminal, but she would not provide further details about the individual.

Shchyogoleva said he was "being interviewed" to "establish reasons" why the video was shared online.

Shchyogoleva also said lawyers were "assessing the extent of the damage it inflicted to the reputation of police."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the local prosecutor's office denied that any of its employees attended the funeral, including the chief prosecutor in the city of Amursk.

The spokesperson told state media that the prosecutor had been away in the regional capital, Khabarovsk City, when the funeral took place.