DUSHANBE, July 22, 2009, Asia-Plus — Director general of the state unitary enterprise Vostokredmet (Eastern Enterprise for Rare Metals) Shavkat Bobojonov have been arrested for allegedly spying for Uzbekistan.
According to Tajik law enforcement authorities, Bobojonov also faces charge of abuse of office. Officers from the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) detained Shavkat Bobojonov on July 16.
Bobojonov was appointed to head Vostokredmet in July 2007. Before that, he had served as director of a machine-building plant, which one of structural subdivisions of Vostokredmet.
The source added three top officials at Vostoredmet were arrested for allegedly spying for Uzbekistan in April this year. According to him, Vostokredmet”s chief engineer, Aleksandr Botov; the facility”s internal security chief, Matin Ziyoev; and an unnamed plant official, who heads the capital construction directorate, were arrested and face espionage charges.
Several people in Tajikistan have been charged with spying for Uzbekistan in recent years.
The Tajik Vostokredmet state enterprise was set up in 1945 to extract and enrich uranium. During the Soviet time, it had been subordinate to the Ministry of Atomic Industry of the USSR; the plant had produced up to 2,000 tons of uranium per year in a form of uranium oxide.
Vostokredmet is now subordinate to the Government of Tajikistan. The facility’s subdivisions include the machine-building plant, mining exploration service, deposit exploitation and environmental protection. large research labs, research and production center for electronic engineering, and construction and transport directorate.
