DUSHANBE, February 15, 2013, Asia-Plus — Some details of the recent hostage-taking incident in Dushanbe have emerged.
Davlat Nazriyev, a spokesman for the Tajik MFA, has named the freed Ukrainian hostages and those who took them hostage.
“The Ukrainian nationals who were taken hostage in Dushanbe are Alexander Smelyakov, Vasiliy Yaremchuk and Yevgeniy Lenok. They are currently living in an apartment rented for them by the Ministry of Interior of Tajikistan,” said Nazriyev. “Meanwhile, Kazakh national Safarkhoja Partoyev and Tajik national Shahboz Abduhalim were arrested on suspicion of having been involved in this crime. Criminal proceedings have been instituted against them under the provisions of two articles of Tajikistan’s Penal Code: Article 181 – hostage taking; and Article 259 – extortion.”
The freed Ukrainian nationals are currently making preparations for going home.
We will recall that according to a statement released by the Ukrainian MFA, the criminals demanded a ransom of 100,000 USD for the release of the hostages.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has reported that three Ukrainian citizens, who were taken hostage by unidentified persons in Dushanbe (Tajikistan), were freed on January 31.
A statement released by the Ukrainian MFA, in particular, said, “Ukraine”s diplomatic office in Uzbekistan learned about the seizure of hostages on January 27 this year. The criminals demanded a ransom of $100,000 for the release of our compatriots.” According to the Ukrainian Embassy in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the Tajik authorities promptly took measures to establish the location of hostages and release them, the statement noted.
“A special unit of the Tajik Interior Ministry conducted an operation on January 31 this year, and the Ukrainian citizens were released,” the statement said.
