A “radicalized” chemistry teacher from the northern Sughd province has been jailed for 3 ½ years for propagation of ideas of the so-called Islamic State (IS) terror group. 

The trial has been carried in pretrial detention facility # 9/2 in the city of Khujand and the chemistry teacher of one of secondary schools in the northern Asht district, Shomirzo Dadojonov, 46, was found guilty of organizing activities of an extremist group (Article 307’ (2) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code) and sentenced to 3½ years in prison.  Shomirzo Dadojonov will serve his term in a minimum-security penal colony.

Judge Jourabek Sanginzoda, who presided over the trial, says Dadojonov was propagating the IS ideas among Tajik labor migrants while being in Russia for seasonal work.    

According to the judge, Dadojonov also created his page on Odnoklassiniki to post propagandistic materials about the IS terror group.  

He was reportedly detained by security officers in Sughd province in October 2016.  

Recall, Sughd governor Abdurahmon Qodiri told reporters in Khujand on January 19 that 322 residents of Sughd province are fighting alongside the IS militants in Syria. 

39 of them traveled to Syria together with their families, Qodiri said, noting that 51 Sughd residents were killed in in Syria.

He further added that 51 residents of the province were currently fighting in Afghanistan and 73 others in Pakistan. 

Last year, 193 residents of Sughd province were reportedly jailed on charges of extremism and terrorism.