Click to expand Image A vigil on 18 January 2024 in Dortmund, Germany, on the anniversary of the deportation of Tajikistan opposition activist Abdullohi Shamsiddin. The banner reads: ‘Bring Him Back!’ © 2024 Cornelia Suhan (Berlin) - Last month a 29 year old man from Tajikistan, who had been living in central Germany since 2019, died under mysterious circumstances in prison in Tajikistan. Saidazam Rahmonov, who was married to a German woman, had travelled to Tajikistan in June to gather documents needed to extend his visa in Germany.Tajikistan authorities claim that Rahmonov committed suicide in his cell, but according to media reports, Rahmonov’s relatives say his body showed signs of beatings and torture when it was returned by prison officials.As with any death in custody, there is a strict obligation to ensure an effective investigation into Rahmonov’s death, which should also cover why and how Rahmonov was in prison in the first place.Rahmonov’s is the latest in a series of cases involving Tajiks living in Germany who have faced severe human rights abuses - or worse - when they returned to Tajikistan.President Emomali Rahmon has ruled Tajikistan, the mountainous Central Asian country with a population of 9.7m, for 33 years. His authoritarian government shuns fair elections, suppresses opposition and independent voices, and denies its citizens basic freedoms.While Rahmonov’s return to Tajikistan was voluntary, that has not been the case for several Tajik men deported by Germany since 2023. They were immediately detained before being given long jail terms on dubious legal grounds.These include Abdullohi Shamsiddin, who had lived in Dortmund since 2009 and was married with children. In January 2023 he was deported by Germany and subsequently jailed for seven years following a show trial. Dilmurod Ergashev was deported in November 2024 from Kleve and reportedly jailed for eight years. Both were activists opposed to the Tajik government; their conditions in jail are not known, but torture in Tajik prisons is common.Neither man should have been deported because international law prohibits the deportation of someone to anywhere they risk facing torture.Unfortunately, Germany is willing to flout its international obligations and is cooperating with Tajik authorities in fast track deportations, for instance by relying on assurances from the Tajik government that their human rights will be protected. In court cases this year in Gelsenkirchen and Muenster concerning the deportation of Tajik citizens, the German foreign office asserted to the judges that information provided by the Tajik government on human rights was credible. But when a country’s human rights record is terrible, such assurances alone do not satisfy international law.Germany can absolutely apply its laws governing who can live in the country, but not to the point that they violate people’s rights and ignore international law.Rahmonov’s case should be a wake-up call for Germany to review the role it has played in these cases and to rethink its relationship with the authoritarian government in Tajikistan.