KHUJAND, February 17, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- Drug pusher has got a jail term of 15 years in Suhgd province.

A court in the Bobojonghafurov district sentenced Khujand resident Rafiq Ismatov, 30, to 15 years in prison on February 16 but the sentence was reduced by two years under an amnesty.  The sentence followed his conviction on charges of smuggling and drug trafficking.

Odilboy Usmonov, the deputy head of the Bobojonghafurov court, who presided over the trial, told Asia-Plus that Rafiq Ismatov had the previous conviction for drug pushing.  “He was sentenced to 6 years in jail in 2006 for similar crime but he was released the same year under an amnesty,” the judge said.    

“The preliminary investigation has established that in September 2010, Ismatov organized smuggling of 1.8 kilograms of heroin by plane from Khujand to Moscow but the female drug couriers (both of them are citizens of Kyrgyzstan) were arrested during inspection of passengers on the flight,” said Usmonov, “Both women were sentenced to 12 ½ years in prison in November 2010; they have already been released under an amnesty.  As far as Ismatov is concerned, he managed to escape in 2010 and was detained in Kazakhstan in June 2011.”