KHUJAND, March 11, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- A city court in Khujand, Sughd province has sentenced the captured prison fugitive to additional jail time.

The Khujand city court on March 10 ruled that the 37-year-old Bakhtiyor Barotov be given a jail term of 21 years and that he should serve it in a high-security penal colony.  This term includes the additional jail time, the source at the Khujand city court said.  

As it had been reported earlier, the 37-year-old resident of Khujand Bakhtiyor Barotov, who was serving his 20-year sentence in the penal colony for killing, and Russian national Rasim Bashirov, who was serving a 19-year sentence for being member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), attempted to escape from the Khujand-based high-security penal colony on July 1, 2008.

Rasim Bashirov reportedly blew up himself by a hand grenade, while Barotov managed to escape.  Barotov was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for killing on 2005.    

Barotov was captured in Khujand on July 7 and new criminal proceedings were instituted against him on escape charge.