DUSHANBE, September 27, 2008, Asia-Plus — The trial of the resident of the city of Vahdat, Nasrullo Sharipov, who is considered to be the main killer of known Tajik culture figure and journalist Muhiddin Olimpour, began in the Supreme Court on September 26.
Proceedings started with the reading of the indictment, which charges Sharipov with organizing armed gang (Article 74) and committing terrorist act (Article 63).
The source at the Supreme Court said that Sharipov had committed a number of serious crimes during the civil war in the country, including murder of Muhiddin Olimpour. “Sharipov confessed to have shot at the journalist,” the source said, adding that three other persons that served as accomplices in the crime were already convicted and are currently serving their sentences in penal colonies.
We will recall that Muhiddin Olimpour, head of the BBC’s Persian Service bureau in Dushanbe and known Tajik culture figure, was found dead near campus of Tajik National University with a gunshot wound to the head in December 1995.
On July 29, 2003, Tajikistan”s Supreme Court convicted two suspects in the murders of Muhiddin Olimpour and Viktor Nikulin, a correspondent with the Russian television network ORT, who was also killed during the country”s civil war in the mid-1990s. Narzirbek Davlatov and Akhtam Tohirov were sentenced to 15 and 22 years in prison, respectively, for serving as accomplices in the slayings. The two men were arrested in October 2001, and their trial began in June 2003.
Another accomplice to murder of Olimpour, Aslan Usmonov, was convicted on September 28, 2007. The Supreme Court sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment. Usmonov was detained in August 2007, and his trial began on September 24, 2007.
