QURGHON TEPPA, May 19, 2010, Asia-Plus — The Khatlon regional court has completed consideration of criminal proceedings instituted against 36 followers of Jamaati Tabligh, a Sunni missionary group. They face charges of organization of activity of an extremist organization (Article 307 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code).
Judge Ikrom Abdulhafizov, who took in the trial, told Asia-Plus Wednesday afternoon that all of them were found guilty.
“Seven of them were sentenced to seven years in prison and 25 others got jail terms of between 3 and 6½ years,” said the judge, “The remaining four defendants were fined; three of them were fined in an amount of 25,000 somoni each and the other one, who is under age, was fined in an amount of 2,500 somoni.”
The court”s ruling was nearly identical to the prosecution”s earlier demand for between five to eight terms and fine.
In the meantime, lawyer Sayvali Navrouzov, who represented 12 of those defendants in the trial, said in an interview with Asia-Plus that the sentence was too heavy.
We will recall that criminal proceedings against these 36 followers of Jamaati Tabligh were instituted on April 16, 2009 and the trail began on December 2, 2009.
In January 2006, the Supreme Court of Tajikistan banned Jamaati Tabligh together with other nine organizations as extremist on the basis of a suit filed by the Prosecutor-General’s Office.
