From the Desk of Melinda Katz, Queens District Attorney
NEW YORK, NY (QUEENS DA PRESS RELEASE) -Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Djamshed Lukmanov, 55, has been sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for sexually abusing two young girls over a period of three years. The defendant was convicted in April of predatory sexual assault against a child and course of sexual conduct against a child in the second degree. The victims, who are cousins, were eleven and seven years old when the abuse began.
District Attorney Katz said, “Both of these young victims have a long road to recovery from the horrific abuse they endured. The trauma cannot be undone but I hope that today’s sentencing brings them both a measure of closure, knowing that their abuser was held fully accountable for preying on innocent children. The defendant will now spend a lengthy time in prison as punishment for his despicable actions.”
Lukmanov, of Banner Avenue in Brooklyn, was convicted on April 1, 2022 after a two-week-long jury trial of predatory sexual assault against a child for one of the victims and a course of sexual conduct against a child in the second degree for the other victim. Today, Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit Durant imposed a sentence of 15 years to life in prison on the predatory sexual assault against a child charge and five years on the course of sexual conduct charge in the second-degree charge, to run concurrently to each other. The defendant will also be required to register as a sex offender.
DA Katz said, according to trial testimony, the defendant and his wife were childhood friends with the mothers of both victims. In May 2007, the family of the seven-year-old victim sponsored the defendant and his wife to come to the United States from abroad and offered their home as temporary housing. The defendant began to sexually abuse the victim’s 11-year-old cousin when she would come over to visit her family between May and October 2007. The 11-year-old victim’s parents cut off all ties with the defendant upon learning of the assault from their daughter just before her 12th birthday in 2007. They did not, however, notify the police.
Continuing, DA Katz said in November 2008, after the defendant had moved out of the home, he began to offer rides to the bus stop to the seven-year-old victim. Once inside the car, the defendant sexually assaulted the victim, a pattern which was repeated over the next two years. After her ninth birthday, the victim did not see the defendant again for approximately six years.
In March 2016, the younger victim, now a teenager, saw the defendant at a function she attended and became visibly upset. She later disclosed the history of abuse to a counselor, who informed her mother. At the time, the victim did not feel ready to report the criminal behavior to the police.
In 2018, the victim decided to report the abuse to the authorities. When she went to the precinct to describe the sexual assault, the victim’s mother also informed the police of what happened to her niece, the victim’s cousin, in 2007. The defendant was arrested soon thereafter.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Marilyn Filingeri of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Eric C. Rosenbaum, Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.