KHUJAND, November 29, Asia-Plus — Sughd customs authorities consider drug-trafficking charge brought by Kyrgyz police against their officer Hotam Berdiyev “unfounded.”
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, the Sughd customs directorate chief Khairullo Rahimov said that Hotam Berdiyev, a chief inspector with the Isfara customs department, was currently held at pretrial detention facility in the Kyrgyz city of Osh.
It is to be noted that during a press conference organized by the Sughd customs directorate in Khujand on November 18, it was noted that on November 15, group of unidentified persons detained the officer of the customs checkpoint Dahana on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border in the Isfara district, Hotam Berdiyev, and took him to Kyrgyzstan.
In the meantime, some media released report on November 17 saying that on November 15, while searching a car of Tajik customs officer Hotam Berdiyev Kyrgyz police officers allegedly found 5.69 kilograms of heroin.
According to Rahimov, Berdiyev wrote in a report to him that it was slander and he was not involved in drug trafficking.
“On November 25, the Isfara prosecutor’s office instituted criminal proceedings under the provisions of Article 100 of Tajikistan’s Criminal Penal – kidnapping, and an investigation is under way,” said Rahimov, “We have also applied to the Customs Service, asking to send a note to the Kyrgyz side over illegal detention of our officer.”
