QURGHON TEPPA, May 25, 2011, Asia-Plus — The Khatlon prosecutor’s officer has completed investigation into case of seven alleged militant followers of the mutinous Colonel Mahmoud Khudoiberdiyev and it has moved to a court.
Bahrom Shomirov, a chief investigator with the Khatlon prosecutor’s office, says the preliminary investigation has established that Umarali Qurbonzoda, Saidqul Eshonqulov, Qudratullo Qodirov, Shamsiddin Ghulomov, Rajabali Ghafurov, Ikrom Turakhonov and Hokimjon Donayev participated in an invasion of Sughd province in November 1998.
According to him, the mentioned persons together with Mahmoud Khudoiberdiyev moved through Uzbekistan into Afghanistan in March 1998, where they took a five-month training at the military camp of General Abdul Rashid Dustum, “they then returned to Jizakh in Uzbekistan and from there invaded Sughd province in northern Tajikistan on November 4, 1998.”
“Criminal proceedings have been instituted against them under the provisions of five articles of Tajikistan’s Penal Code: Article 185 (1) – creation of illegal armed formation or participation in it; Article 186 (2) – banditry; Article 187 (2) – participation in a criminal grouping; Article 306 – violent seizure of power or violent retention of power; and Article 313 – an armed mutiny,” the prosecutor said.
We will recall that Colonel Mahmoud Khudoiberdiyev made two failed coup attempts in 1997 and 1998. After the failed coup attempt made in August 1997, Khudoiberdiyev and his supporters retreated south via Shahritous and Beshkent into southern Uzbekistan. According to some sources, after leaving Tajikistan, the mutinous colonel and his militant followers moved through Uzbekistan into Afghanistan in November 1997. Khudoiberdiyev reportedly returned to Uzbekistan in June 1998. On November 4 1998, Khdoiberdiyev’s armed group invaded Sughd province from Uzbekistan. A few days later the government regained control of the province. Some 100 people were reportedly killed in the Sughd clashes. Tajik Prosecutor-General’s Office instituted criminal proceedings against Khudoiberdiyev under the provisions of two articles of Tajikistan’s Penal Code (high treason and coup attempt) and has repeatedly requested Uzbek authorities to extradite Khudoiberdiyev to Tajikistan.
