KHUJAND, December 21, 2014, Asia-Plus — A court in Khujand, the capital of the northern Sughd province sentenced eleven members of the militant Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) group to between 9 and 19 years in prison on December 18.
Judge Shuhrat Ahrorov, who presided over the trial, says nine of convicts are residents of the Sarazm Jamoat in the Panjakent district, one of them is resident of the Spitamen district and one of them is resident of Khujand. All of them are ethnic Uzbeks aged 23 to 43.
The 11 men were reportedly arrested in September. “Two of the men, named as Mansour Boboyorov and Eldarzhon Hotamov, were arrested on September 26. They planned to travel to Syria and fight in militant groups,” said Ahrorov. “The remaining nine convicts were arrested following their testimony.”
Mansour Boboyorov was reportedly ‘emir’ (leader) of IMU’s cell in Yekaterinburg (Russia). He was found guilty of organizing a criminal group, organizing an extremist group, attempted crime and public calls for the forcible overthrow of or change to the constitutional order of Tajikistan and sentenced to 19 years in prison.
Eldarzhon Hotamov, 29, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and the remaining nine IMU members were sentenced to nine years in jail each.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is a militant Islamist group formed in 1991 by the Islamic ideologue Tahir Yuldashev, and former Soviet paratrooper Juma Namangani — both ethnic Uzbeks from the Fergana Valley. Its objective was to overthrow President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, and to create an Islamic state under Sharia.
Operating out of bases in Taliban-controlled areas of northern Afghanistan, the IMU launched a series of raids into southern Kyrgyzstan in 1999 and 2000. However, in 2001 the IMU was largely destroyed while fighting alongside the Taliban against coalition forces in Afghanistan. Namangani was killed, and the IMU”s remaining fighters were dispersed. Yuldashev and an unknown number of fighters escaped with remnants of the Taliban to Waziristan in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. On September 30, 2009, a man, who claimed to be Yuldashev”s bodyguard, reported to the Pakistan newspaper The News International that Yuldashev was killed in a US Predator drone airstrike. The United States and Pakistan officials afterwards confirmed Yuldashev was killed in an airstrike on August 27, 2009. Yuldashev reportedly lost a leg and arm in the drone missile strike on August 27, 2009 and was rushed to a hospital in Zhob in Baluchistan, but died the next day. His death was formally announced by the IMU on August 16, 2010.
Radio Liberty reports that IMU leader Usman Gazi published an online statement on September 26 declaring the group was in “the same ranks with Islamic State in this continued war between Islam and [non-Muslims].”
We will recall that Tajik President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, recently referred to Islamic State as “the plague of the new century and a global threat.”
