DUSHANBE, September 3, 2012, Asia-Plus — Two persons have got long jail terms for membership in the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and two others have been fined for not reporting a crime.
A court in the Qumsangir district, Khatlon province sentenced Alisher Davlatov and Zilmurod Ishkhanov to 15 and nine years in prison respectively on September 2. Besides, the court imposed fines on Nouriddin Iskhanov and Shuhrat Karimov for not reporting a crime. The amount of fine is equal to 700 accounting indices.
Meanwhile, a prosecutor in the trial of these alleged IMU members on August 29 asked the Qumsangir district court to sentence Alisher Davlatov, Zilmurod Ishkhanov, and Nouriddin Iskhanov to 12, 11 and 10 years in prison respectively. The prosecutor also asked the court to impose a fine in an amount of 800 accounting indices on Shuhrat Karimov.
Alisher Davlatov reportedly admitted charges brought against him partially, while Nouriddin Iskhanov and Zilmurod Ishkhanov maintained their innocence.
Nouriddin Iskhanov and Zilmurod Ishkhanov said that torture and psychological pressure had been used against them to force them to confess.
The trial of them began in the Qumsangir district court on August 18.
The 24-year-old resident of the Roudaki district, Alisher Davlatov, was charged with organizing a criminal grouping, inciting ethnic, racial, regional or religious enmity, illegal border crossing, and organizing an extremist group.
Three residents of the Qubodiyon district – Nouriddin Iskhanov, Zilmurod Ishkhanov, and Shuhrat Karimov – were along with Alisher Davlatov in the same court. Zilmurod Ishkahnov was charged with organizing a criminal grouping and activity of an extremist group, while Nouriddin Iskhanov and Shuhrat Karimov were charged with not reporting a crime.
Alisher Davlatov reportedly decided to join the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in August 2011 and for this he went to Pakistan’s Waziristan, where he allegedly took a military training.
On April 1, 2012, Davlatov illegally crossed the Afghan-Tajik border in the Panji Pyon (also known since the times of the Soviet Union as Nizhny Panj) area for the purpose of distributing the IMU propagation materials in the form of DVDs to residents of the Qubodiyon district, an official source at the Khatlon law enforcement authorities said.
“On April 2, Davlatov was detained by officers from the police station in the Qumsangir district and the list of names of persons, to whom he was supposed to distribute the DVDs, was confiscated from him,” the source said, noting that the names of Nouriddin Ishkhanov and Zilmurod Ishkhanov were on that list.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has been banned in Tajikistan since 2000.
