Former Tajik presidential guard sentenced to life

DUSHANBE, Aug 12 (Reuters) Tajikistan's Supreme Court has sentenced a former commander of the elite presidential guard to life imprisonment on charges that include terrorism, murder, and preparing an armed rebellion.

Gaffor Mirzoyev, 50, commanded state troops against Islamist rebels during the 1992-1997 civil war but later fell out of President Imomali Rakhmonov's favour. His supporters have said the trial is politically motivated.

Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for Mirzoyev but he was sentenced to life in prison due to a moratorium on capital punishment in the Central Asian state, Mirzoyev's lawyer, Abdukayum Yusupov, told reporters today.

Mirzoyev, who denied all the charges against him, was arrested in 2004 -- when he held the post of head of the Drug Control Agency -- and his trial got under way in January.

Alongside Mirzoyev, 15 other men from the presidential guard were sentenced to 12-16 years imprisonment on related charges. The sentences were handed down late yesterday.

Opposition activists criticised the closed-door trial, saying Rakhmonov was trying to remove political rivals ahead of a presidential election later this year, when the long-serving leader is expected to seek another seven-year term.

Rakhmonov, in power since 1992, has overseen constitutional changes in the impoverished ex-Soviet state that could theoretically allow him to rule until 2020.

REUTERS BDP PM1402