DUSHANBE, July 29, 2008, Asia-Plus — The Supreme Court is expected to pass verdict against two Tajik national, charged with killing of a TV Channel One reporter Ilyas Shurpayev, tomorrow. Pleadings ended today and the court is supposed to pass sentence on the defendants on July 30.
The trial of two Tajik nationals of Tajik nationals — Masrurjon Yatimov and Najmiddin Muhiddinov, charged with killing of a TV Channel One reporter Ilyas Shurpayev, began in the Supreme Court on July 18. Justice Shuhrat Azimov takes in the trial and representative of the Prosecutor-General”s Office Azimjon Abduyev is prosecutor in the trial Yatimov and Muhiddinov.
The trial was adjourned until July 22. The judge ordered the adjournment after defense lawyers Naim Berdiyev and Odil Yorbekov, representing the defendants, said that they had not managed to familiarize themselves with all four volumes (totaling more than 300 pages) of case materials. On July 22, proceedings started with the reading of indictment, which cha charges Yatimov and Muhiddinov with murder, robbery, and deliberate property destruction or damage.
Since July 22, the trail has been postponed several times because the defendants have not pleaded guilty to killing the reporter, shifting the blame onto each other.
The case of Masrurjon Yatimov and Najmiddin Muhiddinov, charged with killing of Ilyas Shurpayev, moved to the Supreme Court on June 30.
As it had been reported earlier, two Tajik nationals – Masrurjon Yatimov and Najmiddin Muhiddinov – were detained on March 29 on suspicion of having killed a Russian journalist.
The two men allegedly killed Russian television journalist Ilyas Shurpayev, who was found strangled in his Moscow apartment. Russian firefighters discovered the body of Shurpayev on March 21 when they arrived to extinguish a fire in his apartment that had apparently been set by the killers in an attempt to cover up their crime. Shurpayev had moved to Moscow from Daghestan, where he worked as a reporter for the Russia”s Channel One television. The men reportedly tortured Shurpayev before killing him during the night of March 20-21 and stole some 100,000 rubles ($4,260) from him. Later, Tajik police arrested a third suspect in the killing, Muhiddinov”s brother.
On completion of the preliminary investigation, formal charges were brought against Masrurjon Yatimov, 24, and Najmiddin Muhiddinov, 20, under the provisions of three articles of the Penal Code of Tajikistan – Article 104, Part 2 (murder), Article 249 (robbery) and Article 255 (deliberate property destruction or damage)
According to specialists, if convicted, Yatimov and Muhiddinov cold face up to 25 years in prison each on these charges.
