DUSHANBE, April 28, 2016, Asia-Plus – A 20-year-old Umedjon Amrokhon, who is accused of the fatal attack on recruitment officers in Dushanbe, has got a long jail term.

The Dushanbe city court sentenced Umedjon Amrokhon to 30 years in prison on April 27.  The sentence followed his conviction on charges of murder of two and more persons and murder of on-duty persons.  Amrokhon will serve his term in a high-security penal colony.

Meanwhile a prosecutor in the trial of assailants attacking recruitment officers in Dushanbe asked for life imprisonment for Umedjon Amrokhon, who was the main defendant.  

Other persons involved in that crime – Amrokhon’s brother-in-law, his uncle and his three cousins – got different jail terms for not reporting a crime and hiding a criminal.  Navrouzjon Mirzoyev was sentenced to 4 years in prison, Odiljon Mirzoyev – to 3½ years in prison, Sharifjon Rahmatov – to 1½ years in prison, and Jumakhon Davlatsho and Shohinjon Safarov were sentenced to one year in prison each.

We will recall that four officers from the military registration and enlistment office in Dushanbe’s Sino district were attacked on November 7, 2015 and sustained stab wounds.  Two of them were killed and two others were seriously wounded.

The attack took place on the streets of Dushanbe.  The Interior Ministry offered a $10,000 reward for information leading the capture of the attackers.  The 20-year-old resident of Kulob, Umedjon Amrokhon, was detained on November 13.

Investigators said at that time that the attack was not related to military''s 10-week conscription drive.  But a law enforcement official has told EurasiaNet.org that Amrokhon was in the process of being forcibly press-ganged at the time of the fatal confrontation.

“They wanted to take him away into the army and he began putting up resistance with a knife that he had with him.  After he was detained, he freely admitted his guilt, but he expressed no remorse for what he had done and said that he was only defending himself,” the law enforcement source told EurasiaNet.org on condition of anonymity.