DUSHANBE, May 26, Asia-Plus  -- Hasan Azizov, the head of the poultry farm in the Roudaki district, has got a jail term of 11 years for illegal allotment of the farm’s lands for housing.  

The Supreme Court sentenced the poultry farm head Hasan Azizov to eleven years in prison on May 22.  The court ruled that Azizov should serve his sentence in a high-security penal colony.  The sentence followed his conviction of abuse of office, registration of illegal land transactions, bribery, misuse of powers by employees of commercial and other organizations, as well as polygamy. 

The court also imposed a fine in an amount of 1,000 minimum monthly wages (20,000 somonis) on Azizov.

The court also sentenced Fayzullo Karimov, the head of the jamoat, in the territory of which the poultry farm is located, to six years in prison.  Karimov faced charges of abuse of office and registration of illegal land transactions.  The court imposed a fine in an amount of 500 minimum wages (10,000 somonis) on Karimov.

 We will recall that in a report released at a press conference in Dushanbe, Tajik Prosecutor-General Bobojon Bobokhonov revealed on January 14 this year that Azizov had illegally allotted 73 hectares of lands for housing.  He received totaling more than 500,000 somonis in bribes for that.  

 The chief prosecutor noted that over the past seven years, Azizov has passed some 400 illegal rulings on allotting 73 hectares of lands for housing. 

On June 20 2007, the Tajik prosecutor-general’s office issued a ruling obligating to pull down some 5000 residential buildings illegally constructed in the area near the Roudaki poultry farm and their owners received compensations, the chief prosecutor said.  

We will recall that some 20 women from the Roudaki district on September 20, 2007 gathered near the building of Presidential Palace in the center of the Tajik capital..  They tried to draw Tajik government''s attention to the Roudaki authorities’ decision to pull down their residential buildings.  Those gathered expressed disagreement with decision of the district authorities to pull down residential buildings that have been constructed in the area near the Roudaki poultry since 2000.