DUSHANBE, March 18, 2015, Asia-plus — A court in Dushanbe has sentenced a popular television anchor, Muattara Jourayeva, to six years in prison after convicting her of fraud, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports.
During a trial that attracted close attention in Tajikistan, prosecutors accused Jourayeva of using her popularity as a lever to borrow “significant amounts” of money from several people and failing to pay her debts.
Jourayeva, 39, pleaded guilty and asked the court not to send her to jail, saying she will “work hard to return the money.”
In a ruling late on March 17, Dushanbe court judge Safarbek Nouralizoda initially sentenced Jourayeva to nine years in prison but lowered it to six, saying that the crime had been committed before an amnesty decreed by President Emomali Rahmon last year.
Muattara Jourayeva began working at state-run TV channel Shabakai Avval (Channel One) in 2000. A news presenter at first, she became a star in her own right after launching her own program about the former Soviet republic”s celebrities.
