DUSHANBE, January 20, 2014, Asia-Plus – Defense lawyers of Tajik tycoon Zayd Saidov, who was sentenced to a long jail term last month, are reportedly preparing appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and other international human rights bodies over the Tajik Supreme Court’s verdict against their client.
One of Saidov’s defense lawyers, Shuhrat Qudratov, says the Supreme Court Judge Shavkat Abdulkhairov, who presided over the trial of Zayd Saidov, has not yet handed the copy of the sentence to them.
“The judge demands that we sign a receipt that we are warned about criminal liability for disclosing the criminal case materials and the sentence itself,” Qudratov said.
According to him, they cannot appeal against the sentence until they receive the copy of the sentence.
We will recall that Saidov was sentenced to 26 years” imprisonment on December 25, 2013 after being convicted of financial fraud, polygamy, and sexual relations with a minor.
Saidov”s supporters say the case against him was politically motivated.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee is a United Nations body of 18 experts that meets three times a year for four-week sessions (spring session at UN headquarters in New York, summer and fall sessions at the UN Office in Geneva) to consider the five-yearly reports submitted by 162 UN member states on their compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ICCPR, and to examine individual petitions concerning 112 States parties to the Optional Protocol. The Committee is one of nine UN human rights treaty bodies, each responsible for overseeing the implementation of a particular treaty.
