DUSHANBE, March 5, 2012, Asia-Plus – The body of Bakhtiyor Rasoulov was returned to Dushanbe from St. Petersburg Monday morning.
One of Bakhtiyor’s relatives says the St. Petersburg law enforcement authorities have told them that investigation into the murder of Bakhtiyor Rasoulov is going on.
Bakhtiyor Rasoulov was killed in St. Petersburg more than three months ago but his relatives had not been able to his body for several months because of various forensic medical examinations.
We will recall that in a report released at a regular sitting of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament), Mahmadali Vatanov, the head of the Majlisi Namoyandagon Committee on Legislation and Human Rights, noted on December 16, 2011 that the murder of Bakhtiyor Rasoulov in St. Petersburg is a domestic homicide.
Mahmadali Vatanov was sent to St. Petersburg on December 6 to monitor the investigation into the killing of a Tajik national in St. Petersburg. Vatanov stayed in St. Petersburg until December 11 and met with St. Petersburg authorities and representatives of Tajik labor migrants in Russia while there.
MP Vatanov noted on December 16 that he made certain that the St. Petersburg law enforcement authorities are taking all necessary measures to solve the crime. “I speak responsibly that this crime was not committed on a nationalistic basis, it is purely domestic homicide,” Vatanov stated.
As it had been reported earlier, beheaded body of Tajik national Bakhtiyor Rasoulov was found with numerous stab wounds in a burned-out car in St. Petersburg”s outskirts on November 16, 2011. Bakhtiyor Rasoulov, from the southern Khatlon province, had worked as a taxi driver in St. Petersburg for several years.
The brutal killing of Tajik national drew a wide public response in Tajikistan and the St. Petersburg law enforcement authorities assured that all necessary measures are taken to solve the crime.
