DUSHANBE, April 26, 2011, Asia-Plus — Some officers from law enforcement agencies who are dedicated to combat corruption are frequently involved in corruption themselves, Fattoh Saidov, the director of the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption, announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on April 26.
According to him, the ministry of interior now tops the country’s law enforcement and power-wielding structures in terms of corruption.
“Most likely, the fact that the interior ministry has the largest number of personnel as compared with other law enforcement agencies of the country and police officers work with people hourly is the main reason for this notorious leadership. However, eleven reported corruption-related crimes have been committed by nine police officers over the first three months of this year. Besides, seven corruption-related crimes have been committed by officers from the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), six such crimes have been committed by officers from the Ministry of Defense and six corruption-related crimes have been committed by two prosecutors over the report period.”
The anticorruption agency chief noted that two officers from the police station in Dushanbe’s Shohmansour district had been detained recently on suspicion of involvement in corruption. “The son of one well-known person was detained in the Shohmansour district on suspicion of drug pushing and those two police officers found a 20-year-old young man, came to his parents and offered 20,000 U.S. dollars if their son takes the crime upon himself,” said Saidov, “In the meantime, the criminal was going scot free.”
He added that a number of officers from the Shohmansour police stations had been detained on suspicion of having been involved in that crime. “Criminal proceedings have been instituted against the corrupt police officers and an investigation is under way,” Saidov, said, noting that some police officers have no shame at all.
