Secret executions after unfair trials take place every year in Tajikistan. Many of those sentenced to death allege they were tortured and their relatives receive so little information about their fate, that they often don't know if they are alive or dead, said Amnesty International in a report released this month.
"Relentlessly cruel and arbitrary", is how the report "Tajikistan: deadly secrets. The death penalty in law and practice", describes the pattern of the secret use of the death penalty that Amnesty International has been able to discover in the face of official secrecy.
The organization knows of 133 people who have been arrested on capital charges, convicted and sentenced to death since 1998, 29 of them in the first six months of 2002. Seven people are known to have been pardoned over the past four years and 17 executed. Amnesty International believes that in all probability the others are also dead. Due to official secrecy laws, the true figure of sentences and executions is likely to be higher.
"There are signs that President Imamali Rakhmonov may be using the so-called international 'war against terrorism' as a pretext for settling scores with former civil war opponents," said Nicola Duckworth, Europe Program Director. The death penalty has also been used extensively in cases with no visibly political dimension.
"Relentlessly cruel and arbitrary", is how the report "Tajikistan: deadly secrets. The death penalty in law and practice", describes the pattern of the secret use of the death penalty that Amnesty International has been able to discover in the face of official secrecy.
The organization knows of 133 people who have been arrested on capital charges, convicted and sentenced to death since 1998, 29 of them in the first six months of 2002. Seven people are known to have been pardoned over the past four years and 17 executed. Amnesty International believes that in all probability the others are also dead. Due to official secrecy laws, the true figure of sentences and executions is likely to be higher.
"There are signs that President Imamali Rakhmonov may be using the so-called international 'war against terrorism' as a pretext for settling scores with former civil war opponents," said Nicola Duckworth, Europe Program Director. The death penalty has also been used extensively in cases with no visibly political dimension.