The son of a fugitive Tajik police colonel who joined the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in 2015 has got a lengthy jail term for trying to join his father in Iraq.
The Dushanbe city court sentenced Behrouz Halimov to ten years in prison last month.
The sentence followed his conviction on charges of preparation for crime or criminal attempt (Article 32 of Tajikistan’s Penal Court) and mercenary activities (Article 401 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code). Behrouz Halimov will serve his term in a high-security penal colony.
A source at the Dushanbe city court says investigation established that Behrouz Halimov had been in contact on social media with friends of his father and had been going to travel to Iraq or Syria to join the IS militants.
Behrouz Halimov is the eldest son of Gulmurod Halimov, a former commander of the Tajik police special unit who joined IS in 2015.
Last August, the U.S. State Department called Halimov a key member of the IS extremist group and offered a $3 million reward for information on his whereabouts.
Western media reports quoted Iraqi officials on April 14 as saying that Halimov was killed in an air strike in Mosul.
Behrouz Halimov was reportedly arrested at the Dushanbe airport on April 17 while boarding the Dushanbe-Moscow flight.
But his mother, Nazokat Murodova, told Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service that police took the teenager away from his family home in a Dushanbe suburb in April.
