A man who carried out a knife attack last fall on Saidmukarram Abdulqodirzoda, the Grand Mufti and head of Tajikistan’s Council of Ulema, has been sentenced to 26 years in prison, Asia-Plus reports.
According to the outlet, the convicted man is 24 years old, and his parents work in education—his father as a teacher and his mother as a janitor. A month after the attack, Abdulqodirzoda stated that «this young man was one of the extremists.» During the trial, the mufti said, the defendant «cried a lot, repented, and claimed he had been misled, incited, and manipulated, and that he did not realize what he was doing."
Two additional individuals have also been convicted in connection with the assassination attempt, but no further details have been disclosed. Tajikistan’s Supreme Court confirmed the sentencing but declined to provide specifics, stating that the verdict has not yet come into legal force.
Saidmukarram Abdulqodirzoda, 61, has led the Council of Ulema of Tajikistan since October 2010. The attack on him took place on September 11, 2024, near the central mosque in Dushanbe. The mufti sustained injuries in the incident. Initially, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) stated that the attack was motivated by «hooliganism.» While a criminal case was launched against the attacker, the ministry did not specify the charges. To date, authorities have not provided additional information on the investigation or court proceedings, Asia-Plus notes.
