DUSHANBE, November 29, 2011, Asia-Plus – Russian media outlets report the Russian law enforcement authorities have agreed to extradite Zubaydullo Shoyev, 33, to Tajikistan. Tajik authorities issued an international warrant for his arrest some ten years ago.
Mahmadullo Asadulloyev, a spokesman for Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry, Tuesday afternoon confirmed Shoyev’s arrest and told Asia-Plus that Shoyev would be extradited to Tajikistan in the near future.
According to Russian media outlets, Zubaydullo Shoyev was member of the gang of Abdulvosit Latipov (“Qori Vosit”), which had committed a number of serious crimes in Tajikistan. Members of this gang were reportedly involved in killing Russian military officers based in Tajikistan in different attacks in the 1990s, killing four officers from the Vahdat police station, killing minister of industry of Tajikistan, and taking hostage deputy chairman of Tajik central bank.
Members of this gang were reportedly detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB)’s office in South Ural in 2010.
Russian security officers found the trace of Shoyev after arrest of Abdulvosit Latipov and his two confederates Yusuf Jalilov and Boymurod Khojayev. Jalilov and Khojayev were already extradited to Tajikistan, where they are currently serving their terms in a high-security penal colony.
As far as Abdulvosit Latipov is concerned, he was arrested in Russia”s Chelyabinsk oblast at the end of last year. Abdulvosit Latipov has been living in Russia under another name since 2004. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) identified him as the leader of a terrorist group that organized and carried out 25 terrorist acts that killed 43 people. The FSB said those killed include 19 Russian military officers based in Tajikistan in different attacks in the 1990s and Tajik Prosecutor-General Nurullo Huvaidulloyev in 1992.
The FSB also said Latipov served as a bodyguard to Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda during the 1992-97 Tajik civil war.
Speaking to Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, Turajonzoda insisted that Latipov was no criminal, but one of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) 5,000 fighters amnestied by President Emomali Rahmon in 1999. The arrest, Turajonzoda says, appears part an official campaign against him in retaliation for his increasing criticism of the government.
