MOSCOW (AP) — Tajikistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday sentenced six people to death for their role in last year’s attempt to assassinate President Emomali Rakhmonov.
The court handed down prison terms to 15 other people convicted of complicity in the attack in the Central Asian nation on April 30, 1997. The terms rang from one to 14 years.
Two people were killed and 57 were wounded, including Rakhmonov, when an assailant hurled a grenade at the president as he visited the restive town of Khodzhent.
The town in the north of the former Soviet republic long has served as the power base of Rakhmonov’s political rivals.
The six people sentenced to death were charged with terrorism, banditry and high treason, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. They included Abdulkhafiz Abdullayev, 47, the brother of a former prime minister and the leader of the opposition group For National Revival of Tajikistan, it said.
The condemned may appeal to the president for amnesty, ITAR-Tass said.