DUSHANBE, July 27, 2015, Asia-Plus — A court in Qurghon Teppa, the capital of Khatlon province, has sentenced local crime leader Sherali Saidov, known under the nickname of “Sherchangol,” to 9½ years in prison.
According to the counternarcotics agency press center, the sentence followed his conviction on charges of drug trafficking and illegal possession of weapons.
Saidov will serve his term in a high-security penal colony.
Sherali Saidov, 52, is resident of Khatlon’s Bokhtar district. He was reportedly detained at the beginning of this year and a wrap of narcotic drug that tested positive to hashish and a Makarov pistol were confiscated from him.
When searching his house in the Bokhtar district, drug control officers found a package of narcotic drug that tested positive to a raw opium weighing 0.5 kilogram.
Sherali Saidov had the previous conviction. In 2000, Saidov was sentenced to 15 years in prison under summary conviction but he was released in 2007 under an amnesty law, the source said.
