Tajik opposition leader and journalist Dododzhon Atovulloyev was gravely stabbed in his stomach in Moscow on Thursday night. He is now in intensive care at a Moscow hospital, a hospital spokesperson said today.
The 53-year-old Tajik journalist, charged at home with `libeling the president and government members and urging the overthrow of the constitutional order,` was attacked in southwestern Moscow and sustained a serious stomach wound.
Atovulloyev emigrated from Tajikistan, now dominated by one party, during the civil war in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, Tajikistan requested his extradition but a global rights campaign stopped the process and he was freed.
Atovulloyev is the editor-in-chief of the Charogi Ruz (Daylight) newspaper and leader of the Vatandor (Patriot) opposition movement.
The relatives of the injured journalist assert it was an attempt of ordered assassination. Militia has already detained the suspect.
