DUSHANBE, April 15, 2014, Asia-Plus – Former Tajik police officers Mahkam Lashkarov and Asalbek Boronboyev, who were arrested in Kyrgyz territory on suspicion of drug trafficking in the fall of 2012, have applied to the Tajik authorities asking to help ensure an unbiased investigation into their case.
According to the Interior Ministry of Tajikistan, former officers from the Interior Ministry’s office in the Murgab district – Lieutenant-Colonel Mahkam Lashkarov and Captain Asalbek Boronboyev – were detained with a large amount of narcotics in Kyrgyz territory on October 23, 2012.
Meanwhile, Mahkam Lashkarov told Asia-Plus by phone that they had not had narcotics with them. According to him, they were sent to Kyrgyzstan on a mission. “Our chiefs said that representatives of Kyrgyz police will meet us on the border,” said Lashkarov. “When representatives of Kyrgyz police came they ordered to thoroughly search our car. They did not find anything illegal and took us directly to the detention facility, where they found narcotics during the repeated search. They just set us up.”
On the official statement released by the Interior Ministry of Tajikistan on October 24, 2012 that Lashkarov and Boronboyev had already not been officers of the Tajik Interior Ministry by the time of detention, Lashkarov says that they had their identity cards and warrants (for travelling on official mission) with them at the moment of detention.
“Please explain me how person can receive the military rank of lieutenant-colonel for excellent service on October 16 and be dismissed in four days,” said Lashkarov. “Moreover, former officer must return the identity card but we had them with us. Besides, former officers are not sent on a mission.”
Lashkarov and Boronboyev ask the Tajik authorities to ensure unbiased investigation into their case.
