KHUJAND, May 6, 2015, Asia-Plus — 23 residents of the northern province of Sughd have been convicted of being members of a banned Islamic group Jamaat Ansarullah.
A court in the northern city of Khujand sentenced 23 residents of Sughd province to various jail terms on May 5.
The defendants are residents of Istaravshan, Bobojonghafourov and Isfara, aged 20 to 35.
They were found guilty of organizing a criminal group (Article 187 (2) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code), organizing an extremist group (Article 307 (2) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code) and organizing an activity of an extremist group (Article 307 (3) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code).
The ringleader was sentenced to 17 ½ years in prison and seventeen members of this group were sentenced to 9 ½ years in prison each. They will serve their terms in a high-security penal colony.
Four other defendants were sentenced to one year in jail each for not reporting a crime. They will serve their terms in a general-regime penal colony.
The trial began on March 31, 2015.
The men were reportedly were arrested last year. It has been established that they joined the banned group while they were in Russia as migrant laborers.
Since the beginning of this year, the Khujand city court has reportedly convicted 47 residents of Sughd province of being members of Jamaat Ansarullah and sentenced them to various jail terms.
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.
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.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports that Tajik national Amriddin Tabbarov is believed to be the leader of Jamaat Ansarullah, which Tajik authorities say was founded in 2006 in Pakistan by former members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
Tajik officials say former field commander Tabbarov refused to accept the peace agreement that ended the 1992-97 civil war and moved to Afghanistan and later to Pakistan.
