(RFE/RL)
DUSHANBE, August 7, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- A court in Tajikistan's northern Sugdh region has sentenced an ethnic Uzbek to 15 years in jail for spying.
Court official Amirkhon Iskhokov gave no further details in an interview with RFE/RL's Tajik Service.
Tajikistan's Asia Plus today says the Sugdh regional court also ruled that the belongings of the 43-year-old defendant -- whose name it gave as Yori Yaqubov, a resident of the central Uzbek city of Yangiyer -- should be confiscated.
The panel found Yaqubov guilty of giving Uzbekistan classified economic and political information about Tajikistan.
This is at least the fourth ethnic Uzbek to be sentenced in Tajikistan on espionage charges in the past three months. Uzbekistan in June announced the arrest of another man suspected of spying on behalf of Tajikistan.
RFE/RL Central Asia Report
RFE/RL Central Asia Report
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