QURGHON TEPPA, August 29, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- A prosecutor in the trial of four alleged members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) has asked the Qumsangir district court to sentence Alisher Davlatov, Zilmurod Ishkhanov, and Nouriddin Iskhanov to 12, 11 and 10 years in prison respectively.

The prosecutor also asked the court to impose a fine in an amount of 800 accounting indices on Shuhrat Karimov.

We will recall that the trail of four alleged members of the outlawed Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) – Alisher Davlatov, Zilmurod Ishkhanov, Nouriddin Iskhanov, and Shuhrat Karimov – began in the Qumsangir district court on August 18.   

The 24-year-old resident of the Roudaki district, Alisher Davlatov, is charged with organizing a criminal grouping, inciting ethnic, racial, regional or religious enmity, illegal border crossing, and organizing an extremist group.

Three residents of the Qubodiyon district – Nouriddin Iskhanov, Zilmurod Ishkhanov, and Shuhrat Karimov – are along with Alisher Davlatov in the same court.

Nouriddin Iskhanov is charged with organizing a criminal grouping, Zilmurod Ishkhanov is charged with organizing a criminal grouping and activity of an extremist group, and Shuhrat Karimov is charged with not reporting a crime.

Alisher Davlatov admitted charges brought against partially, while Nouriddin Iskhanov and Zilmurod Ishkhanov maintain their innocence.

The trial of the alleged IMU members was adjourned on August 28 until August 31, the source in the Qumsangir district court said.

Alisher Davlatov reportedly decided to join the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in August 2011 and for this he went to Pakistan’s Waziristan, where he allegedly took a military training.

On April 1, 2012, Davlatov illegally crossed the Afghan-Tajik border in the Panji Pyon (also known since the times of the Soviet Union as Nizhny Panj) area for the purpose of distributing the IMU propagation materials in the form of DVDs to residents of the Qubodiyon district, an official source at the Khatlon law enforcement authorities said.

“On April 2, Davlatov was detained by officers from the police station in the Qumsangir district and the list of names of persons, to whom he was supposed to distribute the DVDs, was confiscated from him,” the source said, noting that the names of Nouriddin Ishkhanov and Zilmurod Ishkhanov were on that list.

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has been banned in Tajikistan since 2000.