Four armed supporters of rebel Colonel Makhmud Khudoiberdyev...

Four armed supporters of rebel Colonel Makhmud Khudoiberdyev were sentenced to death and fifty-nine others to various terms of imprisonment by the military department of the Tajik Supreme Court at a closed trial held in Dushanbe. Deputy Chairman of the Tajik Supreme court and Chairman of the Military Collegium Vaisiddin Fathuddinov said that during the court hearings the defendants had been proven guilty of usurping power and forcibly changing the constitutional system in Tajikistan as well as other violent crimes. According to Fathuddinov, all the arrested men were active members of an armed formation led by ex-colonel Nahmud Khudoiberdyev who in November 1998 had invaded the Leninabad region in the north of Tajikistan with the aim of seizing power. Over a hundred people, including peaceful civilians, were killed during the mutiny.