KULOB, April 14, Asia-Plus – The Kulob prosecutor’s office has instituted criminal proceedings against Shams Zarifov, head of the dehqan (peasant) farm “Shams” also leader of the organization of Mirhusein Narziyev-run wing of the Socialist Party of Tajikistan (SPT) for the Vose district.
Mr. Zarifov faces charges of under Article 135 of Tajikistan’s Criminal Code (label).
Prosecutor Abdufattoh Roziqov has told Asia-plus that Shams Zarifov was detained on April 5 and the prosecutor’s office issued a warrant for his arrest on April 8.
“Over the past 5-6 years, Mr. Zarifov had written hundreds of letters to various instances of the country as well as media blackening the law enforcement agencies and administration of the Vose district,” said the prosecutor, “Inspections have been carried out on all letters and no fact mentioned in the letters has been confirmed.”
According to Roziqov, the prosecutor’s office instituted criminal proceedings against Shams Zarifov following applications received from six residents of the district.
The prosecutor has also said that currently Mr. Zarifov is held in the Kulob pretrial detention facility and on completion of the investigation he will be given an opportunity to give a talk on local TV.
We will recall that Mirhusein Narziyev, leader of one of wings of the SPT, has told Asia-Plus that the detention of Shams Zarifov is directly connected with his political activity. Narziyev charged that head of the SPT organization for Vose was targeted for his open letter to President Emomali Rahmonov that was published in the
Dushanbe
weekly “Biznes & Politika” (Business and Politics) on
October 27, 2005
. According to Narziyev, the letter, in particular, told of problems facing farming units in the country and criticized some local officials working in the agrarian sector. Mirhusein Narziyev says that before that critical article Shams Zarifov had repeatedly applied to different bodies of the executive power complaining about unfair policy in the socioeconomic sphere of the country.
