A serviceman of one of subunits of the Defense Ministry deployed din Dushanbe has got a lengthy jail term for killing his co-serviceman during a hazing incident.

A military court in Dushanbe has sentenced Sayojon Asoyev to 12½ years in prison for killing his co-serviceman Ehson Elchibekov.

The sentence followed his conviction on charges of violation of the rules of conduct regulating relations between servicemen (Article 373 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code) and infliction of serious injury to health entailing death (Article 110 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code).  Asoyev will serve his term in a high-security penal colonel. 

Besides, the court sentenced two officers of this subunit – Saidmuhammad Sadulloyev and Izatullo Ahmadov – to one year in prison each.  They were found guilty of negligent attitude toward service (Article 392 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code).

According to data from the NGO Coalition against Torture in Tajikistan, 59 servicemen have become victims of hazing incidents in the Tajik army over the past two years; 11 of them died.  

Human rights organizations in Tajikistan have criticized the government for not doing enough to stop hazing in the military.

In a recent change, Tajikistan’s government now allows soldiers to telephone the military prosecutor's office to report alleged hazing.