KHUJAD, October 26, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Four former top managers of the state unitary enterprise Vostokredmet have got long jail terms for abuse of power and spying.

A court in the city of Chkalovsk, Sughd province completed consideration of criminal proceedings instituted against Shavkat Bobojonov, director of Vostokredmet; Matin Ziyoyev, Vostokredmet’s internal security chief; Aleksandr Botov, the facility’s engineer-in-chief; Aleksandr Baboshin, the facility’s capital construction department; and Uzbek national Vissarion Ten on October 21 and sentenced them to long jail terms.

One of defense lawyers told Asia-Plus that Shavkat Bobojonov and Matin Ziyoyev had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for abuse of power.

“As far as Botov and Baboshin are concerned, they were sentenced to 22 years each,” said the defense lawyer, “The sentence followed their conviction on the charges of high treason and abuse of power charges.”

The Uzbek national Vissarion Ten got a jail term of 200 years for spying for another state, the source added.

The trial of them began on September 14 this year.

As it had been reported earlier, Botov, Ziyoyev and Baboshin were detained for allegedly spying for Uzbekistan in May this year.  The chief of Vostokredmet, Shavkat Bobojonov was arrested on July 22.

The Vostokredmet uranium-reprocessing plant, located in the northern city of Chkalovsk, near Khujand, is included on the list of strategic facilities of Tajikistan.  It had produced yellowcake for the Soviet nuclear and defense industries but it lost that capability when Moscow transferred all sensitive equipment at the plant to Russia before the breakup of the Soviet Union.

It is to be noted that several people in Tajikistan have in recent years been charged with spying for Uzbekistan.