DUSHANBE, May 24, 2013, Asia-Plus – A prosecutor in the trial of prison warden Mahmoud Ismoilov, who is standing trial over the death of prison inmate Hamza Ikromzoda, asked the court on May 23 to sentence Mahmoud Ismoilov to an eight-year prison term.
Ms. Gulchehra Kholmatova, the lawyer for the family of Hamza Ikromzoda, told Asia-Plus this in an interview today morning.
“All proofs have been submitted to the court and correct legal assessment has been given to them,” said the lawyer or the family. “Therefore, we hope for fair and impartial sentence.”
We will recall that prison warden Mahmoud Ismoilov faces the trial over inmate’s death. He is charged with exceeding powers (Article 316 (3) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code) entailing the death of prison inmate Hamza Ikromzoda.
The trial began at Dushanbe’s pretrial detention center # 1 on May 15. The trial is being held behind closed doors.
Criminal proceedings have also been instituted against three colleagues of Ismoilov, including Rustam Toshtemirov, Sherafgan Safarov and Narzullo Afghonov, but the preliminary investigation into their case is still going on.
Hamza Ikromzoda, 27, died at Dushanbe’s penal colony # 1 on September 20, 2012. In 2010, Ikromzoda was sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment for robbery.
His relatives claim that he was tortured. They say his body carried traces of torture, including burns caused by a heated iron.
Tajik authorities, however, denied these allegations. They maintained that Ikromzoda committed suicide by hanging and that the marks on his body were caused by desperate attempts to revive him after he had been found.
