OSCE hopes Tajik authorities will drop espionage charges against conflictology expert

DUSHANBE. July 24 (Interfax) - The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has welcomed the decision by the Tajik authorities to release the Canadian-based Tajik conflictology scientist Alexander Sodiqov suspected of espionage and hopes all charges will be dropped, said Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International said the Tajik scientist and blogger well known in his country could be retaken into custody because the espionage charges against him remain.

"I welcome the fact that Sodiqov was allowed to return to his family," Mijatovic said, according to an OSCE statement.

"However, I am concerned that the criminal charges against him remain and hope that they will be abandoned," the OSCE representative said.

Sodiqov was arrested by Tajik security officers on suspicion of espionage in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) in eastern Tajikistan on June 16. Human rights activists and Tajik students studying abroad stood up for Sodiqov, claiming that the conflictology scientist could not have been involved in "espionage" and his meetings with civil-society activists in the GBAO can by no means be qualified as "espionage." The scientist's colleagues said he was conducting a research into a recent conflict in the GBAO and its role in the conflict of civil-society activists.

Alexander Sodiqov, who on July 22 was released from the pre-trial detention facility of the State National Security Committee under travel restrictions, remains face to face with the threat of being sent to prison, Amnesty International said.