KHUJAND, October 20, 2009, Asia-Plus — Anvar Qayumov, the head of a cell of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in Sughd’s Isfara district, has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Sughd regional court completed consideration of the criminal proceedings instituted against Anvar Qayumov and his five confederates on October 18. The court sentenced Qayumov to life imprisonment. Musayamkhouja Sharipov, Mukarramkhouja Sharipov, and Abdumubin Tursunov were sentenced to 11 years in prison each; they will serve their terms in a high-security penal colony. Sayfullokhon Okhounov and Mirsaid Yunusov were sentenced to 9 and 8 years in prison respectively.
The sentence followed their conviction on charges of terrorism, killing two and more persons, and organization of criminal grouping for committing serious and especially serious crimes.
Justice Dodojon Gadoyboyev, who took in the trial, told Asia-Plus that the investigation had proved involvement of Anvar Qayumov in killing of ten persons, including three police officers.
The trial of Anvar Qayumov and his five confederates began in Sughd’s regional court in Khujand on August 18, 2009.
The group”s leader, Anvar Qayumov, was extradited from Afghanistan to Tajikistan in January 2009. Sayfullokhon Okhounov was reportedly an aide to Qayumov. Tajik officials say that this IMU group, in particular, organized an attack on a detention center in Qairoqqum in 2006 in which an IMU member escaped.
According to a reliable source in the Sughd police directorate, Isfara resident Abdurahim Umarov, who is currently wanted by police, replaced Qayumov as head of the IMU cell in Isfara.
The IMU is a militant Islamist group formed in 1998. It was largely destroyed in 2001 when it fought with the Taliban against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
