DUSHANBE, January 16 (RIA Novosti) - Tajikistan stepped up its fight against the activities of radical Islamist political party Hizb-ut-Tahrir in 2005, almost doubling the number of criminal cases that it launched against its members, the country's deputy prosecutor general said Monday.
The country's authorities initiated 74 criminal cases in 2005 against a total of 100 arrested members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which was banned in Tajikistan in 2001, Abdusami Dadabayev said.
Dadabayev said the arrested were accused of issuing propaganda aimed at removing the government, inciting extremist activities and racial and religious hatred, and participation in an extremist organization.
The previous year saw 38 criminal cases initiated against 97 arrested members of the organization, Dadabayev said.
The offenses normally carried sentences of five to six years in prison, but activists and leaders of the group had received sentences of up to the 12-year maximum, he added.
The organization's mission is to remove all non-Islamic governments and to establish a global caliphate, or united Muslim state.
