DUSHANBE, January 22, 2015, Asia-Plus -- The Social-Democratic Party (SDP) Political Council has decided to suspend its participation in the parliamentary election campaign, SDP leader Rahmatillo Zoyirov told Asia-Plus Thursday morning.

According to him, the party has made such a decision following growing pressure on the SDP and unfair sentence passed on the SDP deputy leader Shuhrat Qudratov.

“If the mentioned problems are not solved, we will convene an extraordinary congress to consider the issue of boycotting the election,” Zoyirov said, noting that under the party rules the extraordinary congress may be convened any time in the course of twenty-four hours.   

We will recall that the Dushanbe city court sentenced Shuhrat Qudratov, who was one of defense lawyers for the jailed Tajik tycoon Zayd Saidov, to nine years in prison on January 13.  The sentence followed his conviction of charges of bribery and fraud.  Shuhrat Qudratov will serve his term in a high-security penal colony and he is barred from practicing law during two years after a release.

Founded in 2002, the Social-Democratic Party was registered on December 20, 2002.  It was originally registered as the Party of Justice and Development on February 5, 1999.  Tajikistan''s Ministry of Justice requested the same year that the Supreme Court ban the party''s activities and its registration was canceled.  The party re-emerged and was registered under the name of the Social-Democratic Party in late 2002.  Chairman of the Social-Democratic Party is Rahmatillo Zoyirov and the party reportedly has more than 8,000 members.