Tajik Lawyer Arrested After Announcing He Would Run For President

A Tajik lawyer has been detained by the security services after he announced his intentions to run for president in the October 11 election.

Faromuz Irgashev, 30, was taken from his home in the eastern city of Khorugh by several officers from the regional office of the State Committee for National Security on September 4, his family said.

On September 3, Irgashev, a member of the Gorno-Badakhshan provincial council, posted a video on social media announcing his intention to run for president to fight corruption and injustices in the Central Asian country.

Irgashev said he had “many supporters.”

Irgashev’s arrest came as Tajikistan’s ruling People’s Democratic Party officially nominated President Emomali Rahmon, already the longest-serving leader in the former Soviet Union, to run for another term.

Many in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic expect that Rahmon will be announced the winner again.

None of Tajikistan’s five presidential elections won by Rahmon has been deemed free and fair by Western election observers. Rahmon has been in power since 1992.

The opposition Social Democrat Party has recently announced that it will boycott the upcoming vote. The Islamic Renaissance Party, the country’s largest opposition group, was banned as a “terrorist organization” in 2015.

With reporting by Akhbor.com