• Text size  | | |
• Email this document
• Printable version

One escaped prisoner killed, one recaptured in Tajikistan

July 26, 2011

Bahriddin Hasanov, one of the Islamic militants who escaped from prison in Dushanbe, was killed in a shoot-out.

DUSHANBE – Another one of the 25 convicts who escaped last year from a high-security Tajik prison has been recaptured while a second one has been killed, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports.

The Tajik Interior Ministry said that Jonibek Ziyoev was apprehended during an operation in the village of Childara in Tavildara, some 250 kilometers east of Dushanbe, on July 25.

A second escapee, Bahriddin Hasanov, was mortally wounded in a shoot-out in which one police officer was also killed and two others injured.

Two more escapees, both Russian citizens, were captured earlier this month in eastern Tajikistan and in Kyrgyzstan. Thus far 16 of the 25 convicts in the jailbreak have been recaptured, eight were killed, and one is still being sought.

The spectacular escape from the National Security Committee's maximum-security prison in Dushanbe took place on August 23. Four of the escapees were Russian citizens, four Afghans, two Uzbek citizens, and the remainder Tajiks.

A Tajik court in May sentenced four of those recaptured to life imprisonment. Three others were jailed for 30 years.

Link to original story on RFE/RL website