DUSHANBE -- Two sources close to the Supreme Court of Tajikistan told RFE/RL on July 2 that Sojida Saidmurodova, the mother of former top police officer Dilshod Saidmurodov, who is serving life in prison for kidnapping and killing a banker last year, was sentenced to 13 years in prison on corruption charges in June.
The sources added that the Supreme Court on June 19 also ordered three co-defendants in the case to pay hefty fines. The trial was held behind closed doors.
Relatives of the 65-year-old Saidmurodova said earlier that the woman was arrested in September and charged with financial fraud, illegally obtaining a parcel of land, illegal construction of property, forgery, and obstruction of justice.
In March, Tajikistan's Supreme Court sentenced her son, who used to work at the Interior Ministry directorate dealing with organized crime, and four other men to life in prison in the high-profile case of the abduction and murder of one of the Central Asian country's wealthiest bankers, Shohrat Ismatulloev.
Another 10 defendants were sentenced to prison terms of between one year and eight years for their involvement in Ismatulloev's abduction and murder.
Ismatulloev, the deputy chairman of Orienbank, one of the country's leading banks, was abducted in June 2023. His body was found later that August.
One of the alleged abductors was identified as Rustam Ashurov, who died in a hospital in Moldova in July 2023 after local police wounded him during a shoot-out in which he killed two security officers at Chisinau International Airport.
Moldovan authorities said at the time that Ashurov worked at the Tajik Interior Ministry for seven years but was fired for unspecified criminal activities.
Investigators said the kidnappers were looking to extort money from the banker and tortured him before he died.
Orienbank is the largest private financial institution in the authoritarian Central Asian country and has been linked to the family of President Emomali Rahmon, several sources have told RFE/RL.