DUSHANBE, April 11, 2014, Asia-Plus – Hearing over the lawsuit filed by the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption against owners of the market Sakhovat in the city of Tursunzoda, some 60 kilometers to west of Dushanbe, is going on.
According to official documents, the market is owned by Mastoura Rahmatulloyeva, the wife of the Islamic Revival Party (IRP) leader Muhiddin Kabiri.
The anticorruption agency claims that the previous owner of the market, Ms. Lutfiya Nematova, had constructed the market in the place of school stadium illegally and it asks the Tursunzoda city court to demolish the market as illegal.
Ms. Mastoura Rahmatulloyeva and Ms. Lutfiya Nematova are co-defendants.
Mr. Kabiri said on April 10 that he is ready to finance construction of a new school stadium if the Tursunzoda mayor’s office city allocates a plot of land.
He added that as another option he could rent stadiums for organization of sports activities for schoolchildren in Tursunzoda instead of the Committee for Youth, Sports and Tourism Affairs.
Representative of the Committee for Youth, Sports and Tourism Affairs, Mr. Jourabek Sharipov, however, refused both proposals of Mr. Kabiri. “The stadium should be constructed where it had been situated” said Sharipov. “The stadium should be close to school.”
IRP leader then noted that he was ready to construct a sports complex in the place of the market, if the Tursunzoda mayor’s office allocates a plot of land for construction of a new market or the court should invite international experts to assess the actual cost of the market and that amount should be paid to him.
Meanwhile, representative of notary, Ms. Sitora Kholmatova, and ex-mayor of Tursunzoda, Homidullo Alisherov, who were summoned to the court as witnesses noted that a deal between Ms. Mastoura Rahmatulloyeva and Ms. Lutfiya Nematova on purchase and sale of the market had been made without violation of law.
Representative of the Tax Committee, Mr. Amirbek Nazarov, who was also summoned to the court as a witness, noted the market Sakhovat paid all taxes in time.
The next hearing over this case will take place on Aril 14.
Kabiri family’s defense lawyer, Buzurgmehr Yorov, says that Muhiddin Kabiri and his relatives purchased that market in 2009. “The market was registered to his wife Mastoura Rahmatulloyeva and their relative was registered as director of the market,” Yorov said.
Mr. Kabiri says that more than 700 people are working at that market and they are worried because many of them have taken loans to run shops at the market.
IRP leader Muhiddin Kabiri considers that the case is politically motivated.
