Life sentence for man involved in Tajikistan terrorist attack that left four cycle tourists dead

A man in Tajikistan has been jailed for life after he was found guilty of killing four tourists who were cycle-touring in the central Asian country in July.

The sentence was handed down today by the Tajik supreme court following a four-week trial at a maximum security prison, reports swissinfo.ch.

Two Americans, a Swiss citizen and a Dutch national were killed in the attack in the Danghara district, around 150 kilometres south of the capital, Dushanbe.

> Four foreign cyclists killed in Tajikistan in suspected terrorist attack

They were subsequently named as Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin, both aged 29 and from Washington DC, 56-year-old Rene Wokke from Amsterdam, and Markus Hummel from Zurich, who was 62.

A driver ploughed into the group they were riding with, with occupants of the vehicle then getting out and attacking the cyclists with knives and guns, according to witnesses.

As well as the four cyclists who died, three others were injured - the partners of Mr Wokke and Mr Hummel, and a French national. 

Tajik security forces who responded to the incident killed four of the assailants at the scene.

While the terrorist organisation Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack at the time, the man sentenced to life imprisonment was found guilty of belonging to a separate banned organisation, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, as were fifteen other individuals.