 DUSHANBE: A Tajik court has sentenced 17 Afghans to up to 25 years in prison on charges of killing a police officer, taking hostages, and illegal weapons smuggling, a judge said Monday. The deputy chairman of the southern Khatlon regional court, Dzhamolkhon Saidov, said members of the group were also charged with drug smuggling but that an investigation of that case was still under way. The Afghans were sentenced to from 2 1/2 to 25 years in prison, while two Tajiks received one-year sentences for not reporting the group's crimes to police, Saidov said. |