DUSHANBE, October 6, 2009, Asia-Plus — Prosecutor-General Bobojon Bobokhonov told a news conference in Dushanbe today that the Prosecutor-General’s Office has not yet secured the review of verdict against 31 associates of the fugitive businessman Nizomkhon Jourayev.
According to him, the case has been delayed because the court has not yet prepared minutes of the trial.
We will recall that in the report released at a press conference in Dushanbe on July 7, 2009, Bobokhonov said that the verdict against associates of Nizomkhon Jurayev “is unfair and illegal.”
The Supreme Court sentenced 31 associates of Nizomkhon Jourayev to long jail terms on June 10 this year. The trial was held in Khujand, the capital of Sughd province.
The defendants were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 10 to 25 years. The sentence followed their conviction on charges of a number of serious crimes, including organization of criminal grouping, tax evasion, a number of financial crimes, and killing of the Deputy Prosecutor-General of Tajikistan Tolib Boboyev in 1999. Thus, two brothers of Nizomkhon Jourayev – Tolib Jourayev and Fakhriddin Jourayev – were sentenced to 23 and 21 years in prison respectively for having been involved in organizing the assassination of Tolib Boboyev 10 years ago.
However, lawyers of the convicted businessmen and their relatives say that all the charges are baseless, and the Tajik authorities are simply using them to seize the property and businesses of Jourayev and his colleagues, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported on June 11.
Nizomkhon Jourayev was a successful businessman who owned a chemical plant and a distillery in Sughd’s Isfara district. In 2007 investigations were launched into his financial activities; he faces a number of charges ranging from tax evasion to embezzlement of state funds. Later in 2008 Nizomkhon Jourayev was officially accused of ordering Boboyev”s assassination. He left the country before his arrest warrant was issued.
