DUSHANBE, September 16, 2011, Asia-Plus — A joint special operation by police officers of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan has led to the arrest of three members of the Kyrgyz organize crime group who are suspected of having been involved in murder of Kyrgyz former top official, according to the Ministry of Interior.
The source at MoI says the operation was carried out by officers from the organized crime control departments of the two countries in the Tajik capital on September 14. “Three Kyrgyz nationals – Kadirbek Dosonov, 40, Chingiz Zhumagulov, 30, and Mirlan Shakuliyev, 25 – were detained,” said the source. “They have been internationally wanted for murder of Medet Sadyrkulov, a onetime chief of staff to former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.” According to him, they were hiding in one of basements in Dushanbe’s Sino district.
After committing the crime, they reportedly fled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and from there they moved into Tajikistan.
The bodies of Medet Sadyrkulov and two his associates were found in the wreckage of a car on the Almaty-Bishkek highway in March 2009. Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz Service reports at the time, officials said the deaths were the result of a traffic accident. But Sadyrkulov”s relatives challenged that finding, saying the bodies were in positions indicating that the victims were already dead when the car caught fire.
Kyrgyz police say Medet Sadyrkulov found dead in a burned-out car two years ago was in fact murdered and that 17 people have been taken into custody in connection with the killing, Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz Service reported on September 14.
The investigation into Sadyrkulov”s death was resumed in April 2010 after Bakiyev was ousted. Deputy Interior Minister Melis Turganbayev told RFE/RL on September 14 that a preliminary investigation revealed that Sadyrkulov and his associates were murdered in a summer house belonging to former presidential chief of staff Kurmanbek Temirbayev and later placed in a car on a highway near the village of Koi-Tash. The car was then set on fire. Turganbaev said the murder was ordered by Janysh Bakiyev, the former president”s brother, who at that time was head of the state security forces.
At a press conference later on September 14, Interior Minister Zarylbek Rysaliyev said the 17 suspects in detention include Zamir Moldoshev, the former chief of the Border Guards service
