DUSHANBE, August 31, 2010, Asia-Plus — An enlarged session of the government, presided over by President Emomali Rahmon, is currently taking place in Dushanbe.
According to presidential press service, the session is considering issues related to the socioeconomic development of the country as well as a number of bills and raft resolutions.
Many local experts and political scientists expect a number of staff changes to be introduced to the country’s power-wielding structures in connection with the prison break crisis.
We will recall that 25 convicts serving long jail terms escaped from the pretrial detention facility of the state committee for national security (GKNB) in Dushanbe in the early hours of Monday (August 23) morning, killing five prison guards. Eleven of the escapees were foreigners, including Uzbek, Afghan, and Russian citizens of North Caucasus origin.
Dressing in camouflage, the escapees reportedly fled toward the Rasht Valley in eastern Tajikistan. The majority of the fugitives were among 46 people convicted by the Supreme Court on August 19 of terrorism, drug trafficking, and seeking the forcible overthrow of the government. The GKNB first deputy chairman Qosim Ghafarov told reporters that the prisoners took advantage of the negligence of the jail warden.
