Tajikistan's Supreme Court passed death sentences on...

Tajikistan's Supreme Court passed death sentences on two former militants of the Tajik opposition, who are accused of murder, hostage-taking, and other crimes, said Makhadullo Watanov, deputy chairman of the court. The court sentences embraced members of different criminal groupings, composed of former oppositionists who refused to lay down arms after the end of Tajikistan's bloody civil war in the early 1990's, Watanov said. The people are believed to have taken part in an anti-government revolt in the southern and western provinces of Tajikistan in 1998, he noted. Tajikistan did not adopt a moratorium on death sentences, and more than ten people have been sentenced to death here for drug-related offences or heinous crimes since the beginning of the year.