Tajikistan sentences Al-Qaeda members

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DUSHANBE — The Supreme Court trial of four Tajik citizens charged with being members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organisation ended on August 28. Two of those convicted, Biloli Musozod and Mirzovali Kholov, residents of the Djilikul and Vakhsh regions, were sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security penal colony. Presiding judge Musomir Urokov asserted that the court had proved Kholov and Musozod had been members of the terrorist organisation since 1998.

The investigation established that both traveled to Afghanistan in 1992 during the civil conflict in Tajikistan. After settling there, Kholov took active part in military operations and in 1994, became a member of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organisation. The same year, his associate, Musozod, entered the Imam Bukhori madrasa in Pakistan and then joined the ranks of Al-Qaeda in 1998.

Two other members of the organisation, Nosir Gulomhaidarov and Abdusattor Abdulloyev, were sentenced by the court to eight years in prison and will also serve their sentences in a maximum security penal colony. The four were charged under Article 187 (Organisation of a Criminal Association) of the Tajikistan Republic Criminal Code. The defendants were detained by the State Committee of National Security last spring.

Tajikistan's law enforcement agencies have arrested several dozen people this year suspected of membership in banned organisations such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Jamoati Tablig and Salafia. Several have already been convicted by the courts.