Tajik court gives 12-year term to ISIL supporter
DUSHANBE. March 5 (Interfax) - A court in the city of Tursunzoda in western Tajikistan has convicted a local resident of extremism and involvement in Islamic State (ISIL, a terrorist organization banned in Russia), sentencing him to 12 years in prison, the press center of the Tajik Prosecutor General's Office told Interfax in a statement on Tuesday.
Tursunzoda resident Jurabek Sultonov, 33, has been found guilty of attempting to illegally join armed units to take part in an armed conflict or hostilities in the territory of other states, the statement said.
"Sultonov, who had stayed in Moscow as a migrant worker since 2014, familiarized himself with the ideas of the Islamic State terrorist organization via Telegram and WhatsApp in June-October 2018 and joined it. Sultonov agreed to go to Syria to fight there alongside ISIL against government forces of this country," it said.
"Acting on orders of this group's activists, he left Moscow for Kyiv in the company of ISIL member 'Abuzar' in November 2018. He arrived in Istanbul from Kyiv on December 1, 2018. Sultonov was detained by Turkish border guards while attempting to cross the Syrian-Turkish border and was later extradited to Tajikistan," the statement said.