DUSHANBE, April 3, 2009, Asia-Plus — The Prosecutor-General’s Office and the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption will consider controversial property case regarding Dushanbe’s Zarnisor market, Izatullo Saidov, the head of the sector within the department for consideration of citizens’ application of President’s Executive Office, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, after recent appeal of a group of merchants to the president to intervene in the case, the department for consideration of citizens’ applications has asked prosecutor-general’s office and anticorruption agency to consider the case.
“Legislation provides for two months for consideration of such cases and after that they should present reply in written form,” Saidov said.
We will recall that a group of women merchants on March 31 gathered near president”s office, asking the head of state to intervene in a controversial property case. The women ran shops in the Zarnisor market, which the economic court closed last September in order to free the land for development. According the Dushanbe authorities, the market was built on illegally privatized property.
In the meantime, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service on March 31 cited merchant Habiba Talbakova as saying that the market ran for 13 years and the shops were legal. She suggested that officials had neglected to file the proper documentation.
