Prosecutor demands 11 years in prison for border post chief

The military prosecutor believes that the head of the border post is involved in the death of a serviceman.

The military prosecutor’s office in Kulyab has filed charges against Yusuf Mirzoev, the former head of the “Shokhon” border post on the Tajik-Afghan border. He is suspected of being involved in the death of 20-year-old serviceman Shokhdil Dzhurazoda.

A criminal case has been initiated under part 3 of article 391 (abuse of official position resulting in the unintentional death of a person) of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan. This article provides for a punishment of imprisonment for a term of eight to twelve years. The case has already been sent to court.

The prosecutor’s office has requested 11 years of imprisonment. A verdict may be issued in the coming days.

Shokhdil Dzhurazoda was called up for military service in April 2025 from the city of Penjikent. The serviceman served on the Tajik-Afghan border, at a border unit located in the Shamsiddin Shohin area. In December 2025, the serviceman went missing. After a month and a half of searches, the body of the serviceman was found in the Panj River.

Relatives of the deceased claimed that the harsh treatment and extortion by the head of the “Shokhon” border post, Yusuf Mirzoev, were the reasons for the border guard’s death.

The sister of the border guard, Mekhrafruz Dzhurazoda, told Radio Ozodi that Shokhdil had given Mirzoev 1000 somoni for a leave, but after receiving the money, he was not granted the leave. The sister of the deceased, citing the deceased’s comrades, claims that when Shokhdil demanded the money back, he was pressured and forced to do hard labor.

No official comments from the investigative authorities have been received so far. Yusuf Mirzoev himself, his lawyer, or relatives have not publicly commented on the charges.

This is not the first case of servicemen dying during military service. According to the Human Rights Commissioner of Tajikistan, there were 40 recorded cases of servicemen deaths in the country in 2023 alone.

Experts note that the abuse and bullying of recruits by servicemen, known as “dedovshchina” in the army, leads to the deaths of young people in the military. This is precisely why young people in Tajikistan evade military service.

During conscription seasons, videos are published online showing military enlistment officers, along with law enforcement officials, detaining young people of conscription age on the streets and in public places, as well as at their residences, during a campaign popularly known as “oblava,” and forcibly sending them to the army.

Recently, alongside “raids,” the authorities have devised a number of new levers of pressure to send young people to the army. In particular, the authorities are conditioning residents to send conscription-age boys to the military enlistment office for military service, or they will close the mosque or cut off electricity to the entire village. Additionally, law enforcement agencies have detained and beaten the parents of young people who are in labor migration until their children returned and registered at the military enlistment office.

 Such unlawful actions and the cruel treatment of military enlistment office staff towards conscription-age youth have long provoked a wave of negative reactions from society. However, for 30 years, no government agency has taken any measures to eliminate the bandit methods of sending young people to the army.