DUSHANBE, July 18, Asia-Plus – “In the event if the death sentence is passed on Ghaffor Mirzoyev, the death penalty will be commuted to imprisonment for life,” Abduqodir Noorov, an official with Tajik Main Military Prosecutor’s Office, said in his interview with Asia-Plus.
Mr. Noorov confirmed that Yusuf Rahmonov,
Tajikistan
’s Main Military Prosecutor also a prosecutor in the trial Ghaffor Mirzoyev, former commander of
Tajikistan
’s Presidential Guards and former director of the country’s Drug Control Agency (DCA), asked
Tajikistan
’s Supreme Court on July 17 to sentence Mirzoyev to death. At the same time, Mr. Noorov added
Tajikistan
introduced moratorium on death penalty in June 2004, and “prosecutor asked death penalty for Mirzoyev just for the purpose of stressing the gravity of crimes committed by Ghaffor Mirzoyev.”
Abduqodir Noorov has noted that Ghaffor Mirzoyev is charged with violating 36 articles of the Criminal Code, including embezzlement, illegal storage of weapons, deliberate killing, terrorism, and attempting to mount a coup.
On the statement by Mirzoyev’s defense lawyer that investigators were unable to produce evidence to support Mirzoyev’s guilt on any of the charges brought against him, Mr. Noorov said that not a few evidences had been produced to prove Ghaffor Mirzoyev’s guilt.
We will recall that the trial of Ghaffor Mirzoyev began behind closed doors in
Dushanbe
on January 11. Mirzoyev who faces charges, including deliberate killing, embezzlement, terrorism, and attempting to mount a coup, maintains his innocence.
