DUSHANBE, April 14, Asia-Plus  - Two residents of the Nourobod district, some 100 kilometers east of Dushanbe, have been sentenced to life imprisonment. 

The Supreme Court sentenced Asomuddin Okhunov and Taqdirsho Rajabzoda, residents of the village of Samsoliq in the Nourobod district, to life imprisonment.  The sentenced followed their conviction on charge of killing their three fellow-villagers.  

Justice Nouriddin Rasoulov, who took in the trial, told Asia-Plus that on the night of November 9-10, 2007, Okhunov and Rajabzoda burst into house of their fellow-villager Mahmadov and shot to death him, his wife and his mother from sub-machine-gun Kalashnikov and seized $3,000.  Besides, a baby was wounded at the rebound, te judge said. 

“They knew that the Mahmadov brothers had returned from Russia and brought with them totaling $9,000 and wanted to seize the money,” rasoulov said.

According to him, Okhunov faced charges under the provisions of six articles of the Penal Code of Tajikistan: Article 104 (murder of two and more persons); Article 186 (banditry); Article 195 (illegal keeping and possession of weapons); Article 32 (preparation frog rave crime), Article 249 (robbery); and Article 120 (threat of murder).  

Rajabzoda was charged under the provisions of four articles: Article 104 (murder of two and more persons); Article 195 (illegal keeping and possession of weapons); Article 32 (preparation for grave crime); and Article 249 (robbery).  

According to the judge, the court also ruled that Okhunov’s nephew Suhrobsho Okhunov be given a jail term of five years for keeping the firearms that was used for committing the crime.