DUSHANBE, May 13, 2011, Asia-Plus — The owner of the Orima Supermarkets Network Marouf Orifov, who was sentenced to 8½ years in April 2008, will serve the remaining term in a penal settlement, according to the penitentiary department of the Ministry f Justice.
The source says a court handed down an appropriate ruling on this subject in late April following application from a penal colony, in which Orifov had served his sentence since April 2008. “Orifov will serve little more than two years in the penal settlement as his prison term was reduced by one-third by an appeals court in 2009,” he noted.
We will recall that businessmen Marouf Orifov, director general of the M&P company that owned Orima Supermarkets Network in Dushanbe and Kulob, was arrested in August 2007. During the inspection of shops in Dushanbe, conducted on in July 2007 jointly by commission of State National Security Committee and State Agency Tojikstandart (agency for standardization, certification, metrology and trade inspection) at the warehouses of the M&P company, 24 types of confectionery with expired dates were found out. The weight of the low quality products was 1,547 kilograms for a total amount of 46,000 somoni (more than $13,000). Marouf Orifov was reportedly arrested during the handing of bribery for a total amount of $10,000.
On April 8, 2008, the Supreme Court sentenced Marouf Orifov to eight years and six months in prison. The sentence followed his conviction on charges of tax evasion (Article 320, Part 2) and bribe giving (Article 292, Part 2, Point B). The court ruled that he should serve his term in a high-security penal colony. The sentence also included confiscation of personal property.
