DUSHANBE, December 11, 2013, Asia-Plus -- Disgraced Tajik businessman Zayd Saidov maintains innocence.

Zayd Saidov made the last plea on December 11.

According to his defense lawyer, Shuhrat Qudratov, he asked the court to give an unbiased and assessment to what is going on.

Zayd Saidov’s last plea reportedly lasted nearly two and half hours.

Saidov’s defense lawyer, Shuhrat Qudratov, considers that it will take the court at least a week to bring in a verdict, “because there are many questionable moments.”    

We will recall that Zayd Saidov went on trial in Dushanbe on September 12.  The trail is being held in the pretrial detention facility of the State Committee for national Security (SCNS) behind closed doors.

Zayd Saidov, who is the leader of Tajikistan''s unregistered New Tajikistan party, was arrested on May 19 and charged with bribe-taking (Article 319 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code), abuse of office (Article 314), financial fraud (Article 247), extortion (Article 250), polygamy (Article 170), rape (Article 138) and sexual relations with a minor (Article 125).

A prosecutor in the trial of Zayd Saidov asked the court on December 5 to sentence Zayd Saidov to a 28-year prison term.  He also asked the court to bar Zayd Saidov from doing business during eight years after release.