The Main Border Guard Directorate at the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) denies reports that Tajik authorities have blocked Ibrohim (Hamza) Tillozoda, the grandson of Tajikistan’s Islamic Renascence Party (IRPT) leader Muhiddin Kabiri from leaving the country for medical treatment as absolutely ‘unfounded’. 

“To-date, nobody has applied to the relevant bodies of the country regarding Ibrohim Tillozoda’s departure from the country for medical treatment,” Muhammad Ulughkhojayev, a spokesman for the Main Border Guard Directorate, told Asia-Plus in an interview.  

According to him, there are no any restrictions on departure of the four-year-old grandson of Muhiddin Kabiri from the country.

“If the child has an appropriate passport and there is a care attendant for him, he may leave the country any time,” Ulughkhojayev noted.  

He further added that Ibrohim Tillozoda’s mother, Mizhgona Zayniddinova, had not applied to the relevant bodies for getting passports for herself and her son for travelling abroad for medical treatment.  

Meanwhile, Change.org website has organized collection of signatures to support Ibrohim Tillozoda, the 4-year-old grandson of IRPT leader Muhiddn Kabiri.  Organizers of the action say the child is ill with cancer and he is not allowed to leave the country for medical treatment.  

Recall, Ibrohim Tillozoda was hospitalized at the beginning of year on suspicion of contracting cancer. He was diagnosed with embryonal carcinoma.  He reportedly underwent surgery in Tajikistan but the cancer has been continuing to develop.    

His relatives have reportedly applied to President Emomali Rahmon and President’s Executive office Chairperson Ozoda Rahmon.  

The child’s father, Ruhullo Tillozoda, left Tajikistan several years ago and the country’s authorities accuse him of supporting the  2015 coup d'état attempt masterminded by former deputy defense minister, Abduhalim Nazarzoda. 

Another son of Muhiddin Kabiri, Muhammad Tillozoda, wrote on Facebook that the child’s mother, Mizhgona Zayniddinova, is not allowed to leave the country.  

Recall, the Tajik authorities in late 2015 embarked on a wave of arrests of senior IRPT members.

Shermuhammad Shohiyon, the head of the Supreme Court of Tajikistan, told reporters in Dushanbe on February 1 this year that that the Supreme Court has put IRPT leader Muhiddin Kabiri on trial in absentia.  In 2017, Tajikistan amended legislation to let courts try and sentence suspects in absentia.

The case has reportedly been classified as “secret,” but some sources say charges against Muhiddin Kabiri include terrorism and involvement in what the government says was an armed attempt to seize power, led by mutinous former Deputy Defense Minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda, in September 2015.

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.

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.