A Tajikistan court has sentenced a member of a radical Islamic group to 24 years in jail in the murder of a Christian missionary last year, the Interior Ministry said Monday.
Sadullo Madiyorov, 33, a member of the Bayat group, told the court in the northern town of Isfara that he had taken part in killing Serghei Besarab on religious hatred grounds, the Interior Ministry's press office said.
Besarab, a missionary from the Union of Evangelist Churches, was fatally shot in his home in Isfara in January 2004.
Madiyorov's exact role in the killing was not specified. Several more suspects are expected to be tried in connection with the murder, the ministry said.
Bayat, a local radical group, has been active in northern Tajikistan in the past several years and has been accused of crimes including desecration of churches and mosques.
Tajikistan is a predominantly Muslim country. Less than 10 percent of the population of the Central Asian nation identify themselves as Christians.