QURGHON TEPPA, February 23, 2012, Asia-Plus — Two residents of Khatlon’s Qubodiyon district – Akmal Rashitov and Ibrohim Qurbonov – have got long jail terms for membership in the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
A court in the Qubodiyon district sentenced Akmal Rashitov and Ibrohim Qurbonov to 9 and 8½ years respectively on February 22. The sentence followed their conviction on charges of organizing a criminal group and organizing an extremist group.
Meanwhile, a prosecutor in the trial of Rashitov and Qurbonov asked the court to sentence Rashitov to a 14-year prison term and Qurbonov to a 13-year prison term.
Akmal Rashitov and Ibrohim Qurbonov did not admit charges brought against them.
The trial began on February 15.
Judge Davlatmand Rahimov, who presided over the trial, noted that Akmal Rashitov and Ibrohim Qurbonov were arrested on September 15, 2011. When searching Rashitov’s house, security officers found 12 CDs containing IMU’s extremist ideology and propaganda materials, the judge said.
We will recall that another resident of the village of Qizil Nishon – Bakhtiyor Umarov, 26, who is also an alleged IMU activist – was extradited by the Pakistani authorities to Tajikistan on February 3.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is a militant Islamist group formed in 1991 by the Islamic ideologue Tahir Yuldashev, and former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani — both ethnic Uzbeks from the Ferghana Valley. Its objective was to overthrow President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, and to create an Islamic state under Sharia.
Operating out of bases in Taliban-controlled areas of northern Afghanistan, the IMU launched a series of raids into southern Kyrgyzstan in 1999 and 2000. However, in 2001 the IMU was largely destroyed while fighting alongside the Taliban against coalition forces in Afghanistan. Namangani was killed, and the IMU”s remaining fighters were dispersed. Yuldashev and an unknown number of fighters escaped with remnants of the Taliban to Waziristan in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Since then the IMU has reportedly opened training camps in Waziristan and is now involved with other groups attempting to overthrow the government of Pakistan. Yuldashev was killed in a US Predator drone air strike. U.S. and Pakistan officials confirmed Yuldashev was killed in an air strike on August 27, 2009. On August 17, 2010 Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan announced its new leader — Abu Usman Adil.
