DUSHANBE, March 28, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan’s Ministry of Interior (MoI) is ready provide any kind of assistance to Russian colleagues in establishing the people involved in the murder of Russian TV Channel One reporter Ilyas Shurpayev, the chief of the staff of the Ministry of Interior (MoI), Colonel Haidar Mahmadiyev told Asia-Plus on Friday.
“However, it is still premature to say about involvement of two Tajik nationals in this murder,” Colonel Mahmadiyev said, adding that an investigation group of the homicide squad at the Moscow criminal investigation department will arrive in Dushanbe in the near future.
“According to Moscow police officers, two Tajik labor migrants are suspected of having been involved in murder of Ilyas Shurpayev, who was killed on March 21” said the MoI official, “Moscow police have established that the next day after the murder, one of supposed killers flew to Dushanbe and the other one flew to Khujand.”
“However, it is not the only version the Moscow police are currently working out,” said Mahmadiyev. “There are also other versions of this murder.”
In case if involvement of Tajik citizens in the Russian journalist murder is proved, Tajikistan’s legislation does not provide for extradition of suspects to other countries for further investigation and legal proceedings, the MoI official said. “Under the Minsk Convention they will not be extradited to Russia. The Tajik side will then conduct the investigation,” the colonel said.
In the meantime, Russia’s news agency Itar-Tass quoted Mahmadiyev as saying that the Tajik Interior Minister Mahmadnazar Solehov has pledged all kind of assistance. At the same time, Mahmadiyev has no information on the detention in the republic of any people suspected of killing the Russian journalist, according to Itar-Tass.
According to Russian media, Ilyas Shurpayev was killed in a rented apartment in Moscow on March 21. The killer set the apartment to fire, and the journalist’s body was found by firemen. He had a belt around his neck. The Moscow bureau of the Prosecutor General’s Office Investigation Committee opened the criminal case on the murder charges. Shurpayev was buried at a Muslim cemetery in his hometown of Makhachkala on March 25.
