DUSHANBE, August 30, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s Supreme Court is supposed to complete consideration of criminal proceedings instituted against Uzbek national Sherali Ergashev today.
The trial began on August 15. As it had been reported earlier, Ergashev faces charges ranging from illegally crossing border to killings.
Judge Yousuf Salimov, who is taking in the trial, said that Ergashev illegally crossed the Uzbek border into Tajikistan in 2005. According to him, Ergashev is charged with committing four murders in Tajikistan during the period from February 2005 to February 2007. “Four minor girls Madina Aripova (February 2, 2005), Sabina Tourayeva (March 18, 2005), Manizha Ostonayeva (July 4, 2006), and Mavzouna Salimova (February 8, 2007) became victims of Ergashev,”
Ergashev’s defense lawyer Fayzinisso Akramova said that her client had previous convictions. According to her, a regional court in Uzbekistan’s Qashqadarya region sentenced him to the supreme penalty for killing his stepsister in 2001. Later, his death penalty was commuted to 21 years’ imprisonment. “Ergashev has managed to escape from jail and he then illegally crossed the Uzbek border into Tajikistan,” said the lawyer, “He settled down in Dushanbe, working at one of local bakeries.”
