DUSHANBE -- Tajikistan's Supreme Court has sentenced five men to life in prison in the high-profile case of the abduction and murder of one of the Central Asian nation's wealthiest bankers, Shohrat Ismatulloev.
The court told RFE/RL that the sentences and verdicts were pronounced on March 18 without giving any details.
Sources close to the court told RFE/RL that a former senior police officer, Dilshod Saidmurodov, as well as four other defendants -- Qamar Azizov, Akbar Ahmadov, Bakhtobar Safarov, and Shohrukh Khojaev -- were handed life sentences.
The court also ordered the confiscation of all properties and assets held by Saidmurodov.
Another 10 defendants were sentenced to prison terms of between one year and eight years for their involvement in Ismatulloev's murder.
No further details of the trial, which started in January, were available as it was held behind closed doors inside a detention center in Dushanbe, the capital.
Last month, Tajik Prosecutor-General Yusuf Rahmon said that two people suspected of involvement in Ismatulloev's abduction and murder are still at large, while two other suspects were dead -- Rustam Ashurov fled to Moldova in June of last year, where he was fatally wounded after he resisted Moldovan police at the Chisinau International Airport, and Parviz Mustafokulov, who died while in pretrial detention.
Shohrat Ismatulloev
Moldovan authorities said at the time that Ashurov worked at the Tajik Interior Ministry for seven years but was fired for unspecified criminal activities.
Shohrat Ismatulloev, the deputy chairman of Orienbank, one of Tajikistan’s leading banks, was abducted in June last year. His body was found in August.
Investigators say the abductors wanted to extort money from the banker. According to the investigators, the abductors severely tortured Ismatulloev before killing him.
Orienbank, the largest private financial institution in the authoritarian Central Asian country, has been linked to the family of President Emomali Rahmon, several sources told RFE/RL.