DUSHANBE, January 11, 2012, Asia-Plus — The fate of Tajik national Yakov Tsoi who is serving his term in the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Afghanistan has been discussed in Kabul, the Tajik MFA information department reports. Afghan special services accuse Yakov Tsoi of mercury smuggling.
Tajik Deputy Foreign Minister Nizomiddin Zohidov reportedly raised the issue at a meeting in Kabul with Abdul Salam Azimi, Chairman of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan.
The meeting took place on sidelines of fourth meeting of the Tajik-Afghan commission for trade and economic cooperation and the Tajik side brought the issue of extradition of Tajik prisoners to Tajikistan to Afghan officials’ attention.
Abdul Salam Azimi noted that the issue was under consideration and it would be resolved positively in the near future, the source said.
Referring to the Consular Department of the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe, the BBC reported in October 2010 that some ten Tajik nationals have been held in Afghan prisons.
An agreement on the mutual exchange of prisoners was ratified by the parliaments of both countries in 2009 and Tajikistan transferred 200 Afghan prisoners to Afghanistan in 2010 and eight Tajik nationals were extradited from Afghanistan the same year.
We will recall that Tajik citizens Hasan Otarayev, Shirinbek Iskandarov and Yakov Tsoi who had arrived 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 last June due to interference of the presidents of Tajikistan and Afghanistan, while 50-year-old national of Tajikistan, Hasan Otarayev, died in the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in October 2011.
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 said the Afghan special services had accused them of espionage and nuclear raw materials smuggling and put them in prison without any trial.
