Tajik opposition MP arrested on coup plot charges

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan: One of Tajikistan´s few opposition MPs was arrested on Friday for allegedly conspiring to overthrow the government of the Central Asian country, state news agency Khovar reported.

Tajikistan, an ally of Russia, has been ruled since the fall of the Soviet Union by President Emomali Rakhmon.

“The lawmaker Saiddjafar Usmonzoda has been stripped of his immunity and placed under arrest” on the request of the Prosecutor-General, Khovar reported.

The arrested MP has previously stood for president and is the only member of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan to sit in the lower house of parliament dominated by Rakhmon´s party and other parties largely loyal to the president.

Usmonzoda is accused of plotting a coup d´etat with the support of two organisations branded as “terrorists” and banned by Tajik authorities: the National Alliance of Tajikistan (PMT) and the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan.