DUSHANBE, May 14, 2009, Asia-Plus -- A court in the Khatlon province has sentenced Afghan national to long term imprisonment for drug trafficking.

The court of Khatlon’s Qumsangir district on May 13 ruled that Afghan national Nematullo valadi Ubaidullo be given a jail term of 17 years and that he should serve it in a high-security penal colony.  The sentence followed his conviction on charge of drug smuggling.

The Qumsangir prosecutor Safarmurod Ghulomov told Asia-Plus that Nematullo valadi Ubaidullo was detained at the town of Panji Poyon in Qumsangir on January 29 this year on suspicion of having been involved in drug trafficking.  “When searching a truck loaded with cement that was moving from Afghanistan, customs officers found more than 30 kilograms of narcotics, including more than 22 kilograms of heroin and some eight kilograms of raw opium,” the prosecutor said.