DUSHANBE, July 28, 2016, Asia-Plus – An officer with the Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan has got a jail term of 12 years for killing a Tajik woman.
A court of Russia’s Central Military District has sentenced Ivan Shcherbakov, a senior lieutenant with the Russian military base in Tajikistan, to 12 years in prison, a source at the 201st Russian military base told Asia-Plus in an interview.
Shcherbakov was found guilty of killing the 22-year-old Tajik woman Shoira Jobirova. The court also ruled that Shcherbakov must pay 1.5 million Russian rubles in compensation to Jobirova’s relatives.
The trial took place at the garrison of the 201st Russian military base and Shcherbakov will serve his jail term in one of penal colonies in the Russian Federation, the source added.
We will recall that Ivan Shcherbakov was charged with deliberate homicide and a joint group of investigators of Tajikistan and Russia investigated the case.
Shoira Jobirova was reportedly invited by Shcherbakov to an officer”s dormitory on the base where she was found dead on November 5, 2015.
Senior Lieutenant Ivan Shcherbakov, 26, was detained on November 9 and criminal proceedings were instituted against him.
During the preliminary investigation, Shcherbakov said that he had no memory of the events of which he stands accused as he was heavily intoxicated at the time.
On November 10, Tajikistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian Ambassador to Tajikistan Igor Lyakin-Frolov to express its concern over the case.
In a statement released for media on November 10, the Tajik MFA, in particular, notes that “in the meeting, the ambassador was informed that these events are not in conformity with the spirit of traditional friendship and strategic partnership between our two nations.”
Tajik Foreign Ministry said it demanded that Russia objectively assess the incident and take necessary measures to avoid such acts being committed by Russian military personnel.
It was not the first such an incident involving Russian troops and locals. The killing comes shortly after two other officers serving at the 201st Russian military base near Dushanbe were convicted of murdering a local taxi driver.
Fyodor Basimov, a deputy platoon commander, to 17 years in jail on August 26, 2015, while former military unit commander Ildar Sakhapov received a 13-year sentence.
The two were arrested in August 2014 after taxi driver Rahimjon Teshaboyev, 36, was found dead near the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.
An autopsy revealed that Teshaboyev, a father of three, was severely beaten before his throat was slashed.
