DUSHANBE, July 12, 2008, Asia-Plus — A court in Dushanbe has sentenced Komiljon Ishonqulov, who is charged with carrying out a bombing near the Supreme Court, to 22 years in jail.
The source at the Dushanbe court said that the sentencing of Ishonqulov had followed his conviction of terrorism, illegally possessing weapons and explosives, contraband, and high treason.
We will recall that an explosion struck the Supreme Court building on June 16, 2007. No one was hurt in the explosion, although windows were shattered and a part of the structure was damaged. Dushanbe”s chief prosecutor, Qurbonali Muhabbatov, contended that “terrorists” may have been behind the attack, which he said was aimed at intimidation.
According to the source, Komiljon Ishonqulov was detained in a month after the bombing. “The investigation has established that the explosion was masterminded by anti-constitutional forces for the purpose of destabilizing the situation in the country,” the source said.
In the meantime, the Avesta website reported last December that Savriddin Toshev, a judge in the Dushanbe court, on December 7, 2007 identified two men suspected of carrying out the June explosion near the Supreme Court. Toshev that time said that the two men, Uzbek national Hasan Simirkhanov and Tajik national Komiljon Eshonqulov, are being investigated by the State Committee for National Security. Both men are currently jailed for other offenses, Toshev said. According to the judge, Simirkhanov, the alleged mastermind of the bombing, allegedly entered Tajikistan by illegally crossing the Tajik-Uzbek border and succeeded in graduating from the Tajik police academy and later working “for several years” in the Interior Ministry.
