DUSHANBE, May 8, 2009, Asia-Plus — Retired colonel of the Kyrgyz armed forces Muhammadi Salimzoda, who is an ethnic Tajik, has been sentenced to 29 years in prison for allegedly spying for Kyrgyzstan and coup d’etat attempt.
The Military Board of the Supreme Court ruled on May 6 that Colonel Muhammadi Salimzoda be given a jail term of 29 years and the he should serve in a high-security penal colony. The sentence followed his conviction on charges of espionage and coup d’etat attempt.
Tajik security officers arrested Muhammadi Salimzoda in Tajikistan by security officers in August last year, when he arrived in Tajikistan from Bishkek to attend his daughter’s wedding.
However the first information about his arrest appeared only in January this year, when his relatives knew that he is held in pretrial detention facility of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB). Salimzoda faced charges of allegedly spying for Kyrgyzstan and coup d’etat attempt.
In the meantime, Kyrgyz news agency 24.kg reports that Salimzoda’s daughter Shoira said that her father had not admit charges instituted against him having stated that they had been fabricated. “I have managed to meet with my father and his asked to convey his request to Kyrgyzstan’s leadership to gain his extradition,” she was quoted as saying.
Salimzoda and his family left for Kyrgyzstan in 1993.
