DUSHANBE, January 21, 2010, Asia-Plus — A group of relatives of 31 residents of Sughd’s Isfara district, who were sentenced to long jail terms last June, gathered near the building of the Supreme Court of Tajikistan in Dushanbe today demanding resumption of consideration of appeal by their convicted relatives.
They say the appeal court of the Supreme Court adjourned consideration of the appeal against the Supreme Court’s verdict against their relatives last week until January 20 in order to consider the received additional materials. “However, the appeal court then adjourned consideration of the appeal until January 22 for some obscure reason,” the relatives said. “We gathered here to demand resumption of consideration of the appeal.”
Public prosecutor Rustam Olimov says the appeals court did not have the right to adjourn the appeal consideration especially for such a long time. “Last Friday, when it was my turn to speak, Justice S. Kholova, who is taking in the trial, adjourned the trial until January 20 and on January 20, the trial was adjourned until January 22,” said Olimov, “All this is illegal; the appeals court had not to adjourn the appeal consideration. Instead of considering the case, judges are in the office of the chairman of the Supreme Court.”
We will recall that the Supreme Court sentenced 31 associates of the fugitive businessman Nizomkhon Jourayev to long jail terms on June 10, 2009. The trial was held in Khujand, the capital of Sughd province and 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 said 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, 2009.
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.
The defendants and their lawyers appealed against the Supreme Court’s verdict and the appeals court of the Supreme Court began to consider the appeal in Khujand on January 11 this year.
