DUSHANBE, December 30, 2011, Asia-Plus -- The Supreme Court of Tajikistan has sentenced Hikmatullo Azizov, one of the 25 convicts who escaped last year from a high-security prison in Dushanbe, to life in prison.

Azizov’s wife Sabohat Saidova told Asia-Plus that the trial had been conducted at the detention facility of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) behind closed doors and she had known about the sentence from Ms. Nargis Hodiyeva, the defense lawyer of Hikmatullo Azizov.  

Hikmatullo Azizov, nicknamed “Kuri Malysh” (a mixed expression of Tajik and Russia meaning ‘blind kid’), was arrested in northern Afghanistan on December 19, 2010, and he was extradited from Afghanistan on December 25, 2010.

As it had been reported earlier, the last jailbreak fugitive Azamsho Ziyoev, 42, was detained in the southern Khatlon province on November 13, 2011.

We will recall that 25 convicts serving long jail terms escaped from the State Committee for National Security (SCNS)’s detention facility in Dushanbe in the early hours of morning of August 23 2010, killing four prison guards.  Dressing in camouflage, the escapees fled toward eastern Tajikistan.  The majority of the fugitives were among 46 people convicted by the Supreme Court on August 19, 2010 of terrorism, drug trafficking, and seeking the forcible overthrow of the government.  The escaped prisoners include six Russian citizens, four Afghans, and two Uzbeks.  Most were accused of participating in the 2009 armed rebellion in Tavildara.

President Emomali Rahmon fired almost the entire leadership of the security services after the jailbreak.

In early May this year, the Supreme Court’s military board jailed four men for life in connection with the mass jailbreak.  Three other men were sentenced to 30 years in prison for their part in the escape from the SCNS-run prison in Dushanbe.  Those jailed for 30 years include Abdurasoul Mirzoyev, the brother of imprisoned former chief of the presidential guard, Ghaffor Mirzoyev.  The court also found three other men guilty of helping the escapees reach safe locations.  The sentences were handed down on May 3 and officially confirmed on May 4.