DUSHANBE, February 3, 2012, Asia-Plus – Tajikistan’s Foreign has denied the report about the arrest of the son of Tajik diplomat for drug trafficking released by the Asia-Plus news agency as unfounded.
In a report released at a briefing in Dushanbe, the Tajik MFA information department head Davlatali Nazriyev noted on February 2 that the report that the son of Tajik diplomat was arrested for drug trafficking does not correspondent to the facts. “It is not the first time that Asia-Plus releases wrong information about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Nazriyev said.
We will recall the January 30 item of Asia-Plus entitled “Sons of general and diplomat detained for drug trafficking” noted that a source at one of the power wielding structures told Asia-Plus on January 27 that two persons were detained in Khatlon’s Qubodiyon district for an attempt of smuggling 106 kilograms of hashish. One of the detainees is the son of retired general who had headed the Special Property Committee in the late 1990s and the other one is the son of diplomat, the source said.
A special operation was carried out in the Qubodiyon district on January 10 but this fact has become known only on January 27 because the law enforcement authorities have concealed it.
MFA says that one of the detainees is not the son of diplomat, he is the son of a technical employee at the Tajik Embassy in Russia, who was reportedly dismissed straight after the arrest of his son.
Meanwhile, it is not the first case when employees of Tajik diplomatic missions or their relatives are detained on suspicion of having been involved in drug trafficking.
In 2008, Tajik diplomat working in Afghanistan was dismissed after his son was detained with narcotic drug in Moscow.
In May 2000, Tajik trade representative in Kazakhstan was arrested in Amaty, Kazakhstan on suspicion of having been involved in drug trafficking. Media sources reported that tie that a large amount of heroin was found in the garage of the trade representative and another large consignment of heroin was found in a car belonging to the Tajik ambassador to Kazakhstan.
