DUSHANBE, October 5, Asia-Plus — Although the former head of the Tajik consumer union (Tojikmatlubot), Habibullo Nasrulloyev, has been released, he is still wanted internationally, said Bahodur Homidov, an official of the Tajik Prosecutor’s Office, in an interview with Asia-Plus, noting that reports in the Russian media about Nasrulloyev are not true.
He said that charges brought against the former head of Tojikmatlubot are not politically motivated and that Nasrulloyev faces 15 criminal charges, including murder, embezzlement of state funds, participation in a coup attempt, organization of a criminal group and terrorism. ”Moreover, in 1979, Nasrulloyev was sentenced to two years in jail for rape,” Homidov said.
According to him, the investigation produced proof of all the charges against Nasrulloyev. Under the law, if convicted Nasrulloyev could face 25 years in prison.
The prosecutor said that claims that the former Tajik consumer union had been wanted by police since 2003 as “unfounded. ’”He has been wanted since 1997, when he fled the country after the failed coup attempt,” said Homidov, “Moreover, no attempts were made on his life.”
On October 2 Russia”s Supreme Court rejected an appeal from prosecutors against a lower court”s refusal to extradite the former Tajik consumer’s union (Tojikmatlubot) head wanted on treason and murder charges.
Russian prosecutors asked the Supreme Court to review the ruling of the Moscow City Court on August 21 denying the extradition of Habibullo Nasrulloyev, Tojikmatlubot head in 1992-1997.
Lawyer Anna Stavitskaya, representing Nasrulloyev, said the charges against her client were politically motivated and that human rights organizations had long shared this opinion. “One of the charges pressed against Nasrulloyev is treason,” she said. “It shows once again that he is being politically persecuted.” The lawyer said Nasrulloyev, a member of the pro-government Popular Front countering United Tajik Opposition (UTO), and his family, left for Uzbekistan after attempts on his life. She said Nasrulloyev then traveled to meet his son in Russia, where he was arrested.
Nasrulloyev was arrested when Russian prosecutors received a request from their Tajik counterparts to extradite him in July 2003, and has since been held in a pre-trial detention center, which his lawyer argued as illegal.
“Under the law, nobody can be kept in pre-trial detention for more than 18 months,” Stavitskaya said on May 6. “My client has been in pre-trial detention longer than that, which is blatant violation.” On the same day, a district court rejected an appeal from Nasrulloyev”s lawyers against an earlier ruling denying the ex-minister refugee status. Migration services also said there were no grounds for granting him such status.
The Moscow City Court will soon consider an appeal of a lower court”s March 30 decision denying Nasrulloyev political asylum.
