DUSHANBE, September 13, 2010, Asia-Plus — Official Dushanbe is awaiting a Russian decision on the extradition of Nizomkhon Jourayev, a Tajik businessman on the run since 2007 who was arrested in the Khamovniki district of Moscow last month.
The issue of the extradition of Nizomkhon Jourayev is still under consideration, the source at the Tajik Prosecutor-General’s Office said. “We have already sent a request for extradition of Nizomkhon Jourayev to the Russian side,” said he, “Under the Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations on Civil, Family and Criminal Cases of 1993 (Minsk Convention), the issue should be solved within 40 days after request.”
We will recall that ex-member of the Sughd legislature and the former director general of the chemical plant in the northern city of Isfara Nizomkhon Jourayev has been wanted by Tajik police since 2007.
Nizomkhon Jourayev was a successful businessman who owned the chemical plant in Isfara. In 2007 investigations were launched into his financial activities, and later in 2008 he was officially accused of ordering assassination of former Deputy Prosecutor-General Tolib Boboyev in 1999.
Criminal proceedings have been instituted against Nizomkhon Jourayev under the provisions of eight articles of Tajikistan’s Penal Code: Article 104 – murder; Article 185 – organization of illegal armed formation; Article 186 – banditry; Article 195 – illegal storage of weapons; Article 245 – embezzlement or misappropriation; Article 262 – money laundering; Article 292 – tax evasion; and Article 340 – document forgery. Nozimkhon Jourayev left the country before his arrest warrant was issued.
On June 9, 2009, the Supreme Court of Tajikistan sentenced 31 associates of Nozimkhon Jourayev to long jail terms. They were sentenced to prison terms of between 11 and 25 years, while a prosecutor in the trial of them asked for shorter terms for them.
According to Tajik law enforcement authorities, Nizomkhon Jourayev and his two brothers, Fakhriddin and Tolib, were involved in organizing the assassination of former Deputy Prosecutor-General Tolib Boboyev in 1999.
Jourayev and his associates were also charged with setting up an organized criminal group, tax evasion, and a number of financial crimes.
