QURGHON TEPPA, March 31, 2014, Asia-Plus -- A prosecutor in the trial of Daler Vatanov, resident of the Takhti Sangin jamoat in the Qubodiyon district, asked the Khatlon regional court to sentence Vatanov to a 17-year term.

Judge Toshtemir Qurbonzoda, who is presiding over the trial, says Vatanov is charged with killing his mistress Olga Primakova, who is national of Russia, in the Balashov district, Russia’s Saratov oblast on September 12, 2012.

According to him, Daler Vatanov struck Olga Primakova with an axe after she called him “churka” following family quarrel (churka, literally ''a piece of firewood’, is a Russian offensive term for someone from the Caucasus or Central Asia).

Officers from the Interior Ministry’s office in Khatlon arrested Daler Vatanov in the Takhti Sangin jamoat in February this year on the basis of materials provided by Russia’s Investigative Committee.