DUSHANBE, October 29, 2011, Asia-Plus — A 50-year-old national of Tajikistan, Hasan Otarayev, has died in the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Afghanistan.
BBC’s Tajik Service reports an aircraft of Afghan air company, Kam Air, transported the body of Otarayev to Tajikistan on October 28.
Tajik citizens Hasan Otarayev, Shirinbek Iskandarov and Yakov Tsoi who had arrives in Afghanistan for doing business were detained by Afghan special services in the summer of 2008 on suspicion of spying for Tajikistan and Russia.
Shirinbek Iskandarov was released in June this year due to interference of the presidents of Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
According to Iskandarov, Otarayev had worked for one of construction companies in Dushanbe. In an interview with the BBC, Iskandarov said that they had gone to Kabul for the purpose of establishing contacts with one of Afghan construction companies and he had accompanied Otarayev on that trip as interpreter.
Iskandarov says the Afghan special services accused them of espionage and nuclear raw materials smuggling and put them in prison without any trial.
He reportedly saw Otarayev for the last time last summer. According to Iskandarov, Otarayev and another Tajik prisoner Yakov Tsoi were in hard condition. “Prisoners in Pul-e-Charkhi even do not receive medical aid,” Iskandarov noted.
Pul-e-Charkhi, also known as Afghan National Detention Facility, is the largest prison in Afghanistan east of Kabul. Construction of the jail began in the 1970s by order of former president Mohammed Daoud Khan and was completed during the 1980s. The prison has been renovated in recent years by the help of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
Referring to the Consular Department of the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe, the BBC reports that some ten Tajik nationals are currently held in Afghan prisons. The fate of these Tajik prisoners will be determined during the next round of negotiations between Tajik and Afghan delegations on the mutual exchange of prisoners.
In 2010, Tajikistan transferred 200 Afghan prisoners to Afghanistan and eight Tajik nationals were extradited from Afghanistan.
An agreement on the mutual exchange of prisoners was ratified by the parliaments of both countries in 2009.
