An Armenian farmer from Uzbekistan’s Jizzakh province, Aramayis Avagyan, who is accused of having ties with ISIS, has been sentenced to 7 years in prison.

According to the verdict of the Criminal Court of Jizzakh province, Avagyan’s friends, Furkat Jurayev and Bektemir Umrzazkov have been sentenced to 12 and 6 years respectively, while Dilshod Alimov and Akmal Mammatmurodov to 5 years and 6 months of prison respectively.   

The charges brought against the defendants include diversion, robbery, creation, management and participation in religious, extremist, separatist, fundamentalist or other prohibited organizations.  

Aramayis Avagyan’s wife, Shirin Tursunova, told Ozodlik, Uzbekistan Radio Liberty, that the court hearing started and finished very quickly.  

“It was an unusual process. It lasted for 10 minutes. I didn’t manage to enter the session hall: the doors were quickly closed. The relatives of the other defendants weren’t allowed in either. The attorney also didn’t take part in the trial during the verdict announcement,” Shirin Tursunova said.

Since 4 September last year, Aramayis Avagyan, 33, and his friends were kept in the pre-trail detention facility of the National Security Service. The Uzbekistan authorities accused Avagyan of having ties with ISIS terror group.

However, Aramayis Avagyan didn’t plead guilty to any of the points of the indictment.

The trial into Avagyan’s case started on January 6 of this year.

After the coverage of the two trial hearings by Ozodlik, the witnesses, who earlier testified against the Armenia farmer, took back their words.

But the authorities of Jizzakh province continue to press Shirin Tursunova, demanding her not to cooperate with media outlets and refrain from giving interviews about her husband’s case. Avagyan’s relatives also told Ozodlik about the tortures used against the Armenian farmer during the investigation.

According to Avagyan’s relatives, the farmer’s conflict with the local authorities started because of his fish farm in Pakhtorski district of Jizzakh province, when the head of the district, Gafur Karshibayev, tried to unlawfully seize the farmer’s business.

The latter’s talk with Avagyan ended in a scandal. The witnesses heard the official cry at the farmer, threatening by the following words: “I’ll destroy you in the prison!”

Aramayis Avagyan is an Uzbekistan citizen, but despite of this fact, his mother, Flora Sakunts, has turned to the authorities and human rights defenders of Armenia.