USCIRF Welcomes Tajikistan’s Release of Shamil Khakimov and Calls for U.S. Policy Action

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes the release of imprisoned Jehovah’s Witness Shamil Khakimov four years after his arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. On February 26, 2019, Tajik authorities arrested Khakimov following widespread raids on the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses who were meeting together for worship. Khakimov’s incarceration was characterized by systematic medical neglect by the Tajik government, despite multiple statements from the United Nations Human Rights Committee on its obligation under international law to provide adequate medical care to Khakimov.

“The government of Tajikistan stole four years of life and freedom from a peaceful, elderly man who only sought to express and live his religion according to his conscience,” said USCIRF Chair Nury Turkel. “Time and again the government denied Khakimov access to vital medical care when he was sick, blocked him from attending the funeral of his only son, and kept him in prison even when the ‘crime’ he was charged with was decriminalized and downgraded to an administrative offense.”

The U.S. Department of State has designated Tajikistan as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) since 2016, but the government’s violations of religious freedom continue to reach new levels of severity. In recent months, the government has closed religious schools and bookshops, raided the homes of Ismaili Shi’a Muslims to disband private prayer meetings and fine participants, and has continued to enforce laws that ban any public expression of religion and that prohibit children from attending worship services or receiving religious education.

“The government of Tajikistan’s religious freedom violations have become so egregious that the world is beginning to take notice,” said USCIRF Commissioner David Curry. “USCIRF urges the U.S. government to take actions toward Tajikistan consistent with its issuing of the CPC designation, including conditioning U.S. security assistance to Tajikistan with religious freedom reforms, and imposing targeted sanctions on Tajik government officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom.”

USCIRF continues to call for the release of all other prisoners of conscience detained in Tajikistan because of their freedom of religion or belief, such as Muzaffar Davlatmirov and Shohida Mamadjonova. In its 2023 Annual Report, USCIRF again recommended that the U.S. government designate Tajikistan as a CPC for its systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. USCIRF has also called on the State Department to remove the national security waiver, which negates any punitive consequences resulting from the designation. USCIRF’s Spotlight Podcast discusses religious freedom conditions facing the country’s Muslim population.  

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected].