The Dushanbe Supervisory Court upheld the sentence of 7.5 years in prison for Abdullah Gurbat, one of the convicted Tajik journalists. Dilafruz Samadova, the lawyer of the journalist, told Asia-Plus about this.

Earlier, the Court of cassation of the city of Dushanbe also upheld the verdict of the Shohmansur district court against this Tajik journalist.

Dilafruz Samadova reported that on July 14 this year, a court of supervisory instance was held and the defense's demand was to cancel the verdict of the Shohmansur district court against Gurbati and terminate the criminal case against him.

She added that according to the requirements of article 88.1 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Tajikistan, the court of first instance had to admit these conclusions as inadmissible evidence and never use them as the basis for Gurbati's accusation.

"But the supervisory court rejected the arguments we proposed," she said.

The lawyer added that they intend to appeal to the Supreme Court of Tajikistan and the Commissioner for Human Rights with a supervisory complaint.