AKIPRESS.COM - Tajik authorities should immediately release or credibly charge a blogger and academic researcher detained on June 16 in southeastern Tajikistan, Human Rights Watch said last week.

Two persons identifying themselves as officers with Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security detained Alexander Sodikov in Khorog on suspicion of spying for an unnamed country after he met with civil society activist Alim Sherzamonov. Government officials refuse to confirm he is in custody and have not disclosed his whereabouts.

At the time of his detention, Sodikov, a Tajik citizen, Ph.D student at the University of Toronto, and a well-known blogger for Global Voices, was visiting Gorno-Badakhshan to conduct academic research on conflict resolution under the auspices of the University of Exeter in the UK. Gorno-Badakhshan experienced clashes between central government forces and an armed group in July 2012 and more recent protests in May 2014.

Sodikov has not been heard from since 9.30 pm on June 16, when he called his wife. At the time, Sodikov was unable to say where he was being held or by whom. Various government ministries, including the State Committee for National Security, have since refused to confirm Sodikov’s whereabouts or that he is in custody.

Under international law, authorities commit an enforced disappearance when, following a person’s arrest by state agents, they refuse to acknowledge they are holding someone in detention or conceal the person’s fate or whereabouts, thereby placing them outside the protection of the law. “Disappearances” increase the likelihood of torture or other ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch noticed.

On June 17, sources close to the Sodikov family told Human Rights Watch that police searched Sodikov’s mother’s house in Dushanbe and confiscated flash drives and computers. Later, on June 18, state television in Khorog showed scenes of Sodikov speaking about Gorno-Badakhshan region which appeared to show him in the custody of local law enforcement officials, but it was not announced during the program where or by whom he was held.

Since Sodikov’s detention and disappearance, the University of Exeter has confirmed that his trip to Gorno-Badakhshan was part of a university study. Scholars working on Central Asia have expressed concern for Sodikov’s safety, and alarm that his arrest appears to be retaliation for his peaceful academic research. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe also called on Tajik authorities to immediately disclose his whereabouts and provide information on his disappearance.

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