KHUJAND, September 10, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Woman from Khujand and her son have got long prison terms for extortion and person abduction.

The Khujand city court on September 9 completed consideration of criminal cases instituted against 50-year-old Nori Hasanova and her 29-year-old son Farhod Hasanov and ruled that they be given the jail term of 12 years and six months each.  Nori Hasanova will serve her term in a minimum-security penal colony while her son will serve his term in a high-security penal colony.  The sentence followed their conviction on charges of abduction of a person (Article 120, part 2 of Tajikistan’s Pena Code – abduction committed by a group of persons) and extortion (Article 25).

A prosecutor in the trial Farhod Masharipov told Asia-Plus that in May this year, the Khujand prosecutor’s office received an application from resident of Sughd’s Bobojonghafurov district, in which he said that Nori Hasanova and her son Farhod Hasanov were allegedly holding his son and demanding a ransom for release of him.

“At first, they demanded 5,000 Russian rubles for assistance they will provide to his son for returning home from Tumen, Russia.  He paid this amount to them,” said the prosecutor, “However, when they brought his son from Tumen they demanded another 15,000 Russian rubles.  The Bobojonghafurov resident applied to appropriate bodies and the extortionists were arrested.”