DUSHANBE, March 6, Asia-Plus -- A regional court in the Khatlon province has sentenced resident of the Kolkhozobod district Ibrohim Nasriddinov to 23 years in jail. 

The Khatlon regional court yesterday ruled that Ibrohim Nasriddinov be given a jail term of 23 years and that he should serve his sentence in a high-security penal colony. 

According the Khatlon regional court, the sentence followed Nasriddinov’s conviction on charges of killing, complicity in killing, as well as illegally bearing, possessing, acquiring, and manufacturing weapons.  

Odil Yorbekov, Nasriddinov’s defense lawyer, said that his client had pleaded guilty of all the charges he had faced.  

It is to noted that Ibrohim Nasriddinov was returned home from the US-run detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

According to Yorbekov, his client committed murder in the Danghara district in 2000 and fled the country.  “In Afghanistan, Nasriddinov joined terrorists and during several years, he took training at terrorist camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” said the lawyer, “In 2006, he was arrested by US special forces in Kunduz on suspicion of having participated in the international terrorist network al-Qaeda and the Taliban Movement and sent to Guantanamo.”   

We will recall that Tajikistan is engaged in negotiations with U.S. officials over Tajik nationals being detained at the U.S.-run detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  The exact number of Tajiks still in detention in Guantanamo is unclear.