KHUJAND, April 1, 2015, Asia-Plus — A court in the northern province of Sughd has convicted ten local men of being members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
The Sughd regional court reportedly sentenced ten residents of the Spitamen district to different jail terms on March 31.
An official source at the Sughd regional court says the convicts are young men aged 22 to 27. Seven of them were sentenced to jail terms ranging from nine to seventeen years and the remaining three men were sentenced to one year in prison each.
The sentence followed their conviction on charges of organizing a criminal group, organizing an extremist group, and not reporting a crime.
The convicts reportedly joined the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in November 2014 and were detained by Sughd police in December 2014.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, is on the U.S. State Department”s list of foreign terrorist organizations and is banned in Central Asia’s nations and the Russian Federation. It is believed to have links with Taliban militants and international terrorist network Al-Qaeda.
