– EurasiaNet.org reported yesterday that Numonjon Sharipov, an activist of the banned Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), has been spirited out of Istanbul by staff from the Tajik consulate.

He has reportedly been forcibly handed over to the Tajik authorities by Turkey in what his supporters say is a violation of international law.

Numonjon Sharipov was allegedly spirited out of Istanbul by Tajik diplomatic staff on February 16.

IRPT’s official website, Payom, reported that Sharipov was detained on February 4 by Turkish law enforcement officers on suspicion of violating migration laws.  Sharipov’s lawyers said that they were told by migration officials on February 16 that their client would be allowed to leave for a third country some days later.  But on February 19, they were informed that Sharipov had already left the country.

According to EurasiaNet.org, Payom cited an unnamed witness as saying that Sharipov was taken to the airport in a car belonging to the Tajik consulate.  

Reacting to the reports of the deportation, Human Rights Watch Central Asia researcher Steve Swerdlow wrote on Twitter of concern that Sharipov could face torture in Tajikistan.

Meanwhile, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service says it got in touch with Numonjon Sharipov by phone on February 20. 

Numonjon Sharipov said that he had returned to Tajikistan voluntarily and he was currently at liberty.  “I am currently in Dushanbe and I am going to travel to Isfara tomorrow,” Sharipov told RFE/RL’s Tajik Service by phone on February 20.  Sharipov noted that he was not under pressure.

Meanwhile, the Tajik authorities have not yet made a statement on Numonjon Sharipov, RFE/RL’s Tajik Service said yesterday. 

Sharipov is a native of Isfara, in northern Tajikistan.  He fled the country in 2015 and later opened a Tajik cafe in Istanbul.

Founded in October 1990, the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan was the only Islamic party officially registered in former Soviet Central Asia.  The IRPT was registered on December 4, 1991.  It was banned by the Supreme Court in June 1993 and legalized in August 1999. 

Since 1999, the party had reportedly been the second-largest party in Tajikistan after the ruling People’s Democratic Party of Tajikistan.

In the 2005 and 2010 parliamentary elections, the IRPT won two out of 63 seats in the parliament, but the party suffered a crushing defeat in Tajikistan’s March 2015 vote, failing to clear the 5 percent threshold needed to win parliament seats.

In September 2015, Tajik authorities have linked mutinous general Abduhalim Nzarzoda to the IRPT.  They said the mutinous general who was killed in a special security operation in the Romit Gorge on September 16, 2015, was allegedly linked to the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan.

On September 16, the authorities arrested 13 leading members of the IRPT, alleging their direct involvement into the mutiny’s masterminding.

The Islamic Revival party denies link to Nazarzoda’s deadly mutiny.

Tajikistan’s Supreme Court banned the Islamic Revival Party as terrorist group on September 29, 2015 on the basis of a suit filed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office. The Supreme Court ruled that the IRPT should be included on a blacklist of extremist and terrorist organizations.  The verdict forces the closure of the IRPT’s official newspaper Najot and bans the distribution of any video, audio, or printed materials related to the party’s activities.

Party leader Muhiddin Kabiri, who now is in self-imposed exile abroad, denies any wrongdoing or involvement in the violence.