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Tajikistan trying six suspected members of extremist group

Dushanbe, August 20, Interfax - The Sughd Region Court in northern Tajikistan has begun the trial of six men suspected of being active members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which is banned in a number of Central Asian countries, Judge Dodojon Gadoiboyev chairing the process told Interfax on Thursday.

"The defendants are six citizen of Tajikistan, residents of the Isfara district 440 kilometers northeast of Dushanbe, whom the prosecution considers active IMU members," Gadoiboyev said.

All the suspects were detained at the beginning of 2009. One of them was detained in Afghanistan and extradited to Tajikistan. In addition to being suspected members of an extremist organization, the defendants have been charged with an attack on a checkpoint at the Tajik-Kyrgyz border in 2006, in which several border guards were killed.

The Tajik Supreme Court had convicted six men to 8-8.5 years in prison for membership in the IMU and for calls for violent destruction of the constitutional system.

The Sughd region is located in the Fergana Valley near the Tajik-Kyrgyz border. The Fergana Valley is considered the most active area in the region in terms of spread of extremist religious movements.

The IMU was set up in 1996, is headquartered in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and is acting in Uzbekistan, mostly in the Fergana Valley. IMU members have also been regularly detained in the neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The IMU reportedly seeks the overthrowing of the governments in the Central Asian countries and turning them into Islamic states.

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