Dushanbe, February 24, Interfax – A Tajik court has convicted seven people supporting the extremist ideas of the Tablighi Jamaat Islamic movement of openly calling for a violent subversion of the country’s legitimate authorities, the Tajik Supreme Court said in a press release.
The trial was held in the Sogda region, 100 kilometers north of the Dushanbe capital.
“The court found the defendants, seven citizens of Tajikistan, guilty of publicly calling for a violent subversion of the Tajikistan Republic’s constitutional system – Article 307.1 – and gave them prison sentences,” the court said.
Two of them were sentenced to five years in prison each, and the remaining five received three-year prison terms each.
It was the first trial over Tablighi Jamaat followers in Tajikistan in the past two years, following the conviction of 56 supporters of this movement in March 2010. Twenty-three Tajik citizens were given sentences ranging from three to six years in prison, and 33 other people were ordered to pay fines from $8,000 to $16,000.
Tablighi Jamaat, which does not have official registration, is widely popular in South Asian countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. However, the authorities of these countries regard this religious movement as dangerous.
via Interfax-Religion.