KHUJAND, April 30, 2015, Asia-Plus — Ten residents of the northern province of Sughd have been convicted of membership in a banned Islamic group Jamaat Ansarullah the Tajik government has classified as extremist.
Ms. Fayzinisso Vohidova, who is a defense lawyer for two of the defendants, says the trial was held at Khujand pretrial detention center # 2.
According to her, the defendants are residents of the northern city of Isfara, aged 30 to 38. They reportedly joined Jamaat Ansarullah while working in the Russian Federation.
“They were detained by Sughd police at the beginning of this year,” the lawyer said, noting that the Khujand city court sentenced them to 8½ in prison each on April 29.
The sentence reportedly followed their conviction on charges of organizing a criminal group, organizing an extremist group, organizing activities of an extremist group, and participating in the banned political, public and religious associations.
Tajik law enforcement authorities say Jamaat Ansarullah is a branch of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and financed by Al-Qaeda, an international terrorist network.
The Khujand city court on February 17 convicted 13 local men of being members of Jamaat Ansarullah and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 9 to 12 years.
Jamaat Ansarullah, also known as the Society of Allah’s Soldiers, first came to light in September 2010 when the heretofore unknown organization claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on September 3 in Khujand. An explosives-packed car rammed into the building of the Sughd regional organized crime control department, killing two officers and two civilians and wounding 28 people. The suicide bomber was local resident Akmal Karimov, who was reportedly trained in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In September 2011, Jamaat Ansarullah issued several videos calling on Tajikistan’s citizens to embrace jihad against “infidels” and urging them to take action to support the implementation of Islamic Sharia law. “Those who pray namaz, who follow fasting rules but support democracy are nonbelievers,” a man on the video said. “Allah is killing nonbelievers by our hands and, thus, blesses us.” Some politicians and experts, however, doubt whether these videos can really be traced back to Jamaat Ansarullah.
In May 2012, Tajikistan’s Supreme Court officially banned Jamaat Ansarullah as extremist on the basis of a suit filed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office.
The deputy head of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), Mansour Umarov, told parliament on February 4 that Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had transferred one of the leaders of Jamaat Ansarullah, Tajik national Qamariddin Ahrorov, to Tajik authorities.
