Tajik court finds BBC reporter guilty of complicity

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15311141

A BBC reporter has been found guilty in Tajikistan of complicity in the activities of a banned Islamist organisation, Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Urunboy Usmonov was sentenced to three years in jail, but the judge granted him an amnesty and ordered his release.

Mr Usmonov's arrest in June sparked international condemnation - the BBC has strongly condemned the verdict.

The Tajik authorities had accused Mr Usmonov of failing to provide details of Hizb ut-Tahrir members to police.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hizb_ut-Tahrir

Hizb ut-Tahrir (Arabic: حزب التحرير‎ Ḥizb at-Taḥrīr; English: Party of Liberation) is an international Sunni<2><3><4> pan-Islamic political organisation whose goal is for all Muslim countries to unify as an Islamic state or caliphate ruled by Islamic law and with a caliph head of state elected by Muslims.<5>

The organization was founded in 1953 in Jerusalem by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, an Islamic scholar and appeals court judge (Qadi)<6> from the Palestinian village of Ijzim. Since then Hizb ut-Tahrir has spread to more than 40 countries, and by one estimate has about one million members.<7> Hizb ut-Tahrir is very active in the west, particularly in the United Kingdom, and is also active in several Arab and Central Asian countries, despite being banned by some governments.

Hizb ut-Tahrir believes a caliphate would provide stability and security to both Muslims and Non-Muslims in the predominantly Muslim regions of the world.<8> The party promotes a detailed program for institution of a caliphate that would establish Shariah and carry "the Da'wah of Islam" to the world.<9><10> It believes this political transformation would provide honest leadership, protecting and caring for its citizens, and fighting against the "colonial foreign policies" of the United States and other Western nations that have led to "U.S. interventions, energy inspired wars, puppet (Muslim) governments and western values forced by the barrel of a gun."<11> Hizb ut-Tahrir is also strongly anti-Zionist and calls for Israel, which it calls an "illegal entity," to be dismantled.<12>

Some observers believe Hizb ut-Tahrir is the victim of false allegations of connections to terrorism, pointing out that the organization explicitly commits itself to non-violence.<13> Other right wing thinkers postulate that the group's opposition to violence is tactical and temporary,<14> and that it works to create a politically charged atmosphere possiby conducive to violence.<15><16><17>