DUSHANBE, August 30, 2014, Asia-Plus — As HSV-Star, Otto Addo (39) was about to get into his car, the 80,000-euro Range Rover, which was right in front of his house in Poppenbuettel was gone. Now the luxury car has resurfaced in Tajikistan,
Süddeutsche Zeitung
reported on August 18.
On this particular day he was running late taking his kids to school when he realized that his car was not where he parked it. Otto Addo started wondering, if he had parked somewhere else. But his wife said that this cannot be. Then it finally occurred to him that the car was stolen.
The former Bundesliga player and current coach of the A-youth-HSV then called the police. But after a month, the case was closed.
There was no trace of the car until reporters of ARD-political magazine
Panorama
and the magazine
Süddeutsche Zeitung
came to his door with info about his car.
They had seen his car and several other stolen vehicles found during their research trip in Tajikistan. The SUV of the HSV-Star reportedly stood in a side street of Dushanbe with a new label. However the perpetrators did not remove a sticker (with the Hamburg flag) from the windshield.
According to
Süddeutsche Zeitung
, the Berlin state police suspect that Tajikistan is one of the main importing countries for stolen luxury cars. There are even rumours of the President Anomaly Ramón relatives drive such cars.
Tajikistan Government is ignorant of the criminal activities and
Süddeutsche Zeitung
cited Tajik Interior Minister Amazon Rahimzoda as saying that “the buyers are in our Constitution, the new rightful owners since they acquired the cars in good faith from the third or fourth hand and as such property rights are protected by law.” It means that the buyer did not know that the vehicles were stolen. Therefore, they are allowed to keep the car.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
says Otto Addo will not get back his car. “This is annoying, but I got insurance,” he says. The HSV-Star now reportedly travels on a leased car.
We will recall that the German daily
Bild
reported on December 19, 2013 that that some 200 stolen cars from Germany, including 93 BMWs, have been tracked down in Tajikistan.
Bild
said the cars were located in Tajikistan through the vehicles” GPS tracking systems. Most of the stolen cars are now owned by people connected to President Emomali Rahmon,
Bild
noted.
Tajik Embassy in Berlin dismissed the allegation as unfounded. The embassy said it had in the past asked Berlin to provide information from its database of stolen cars to Tajik authorities to prevent their illegal import into Tajikistan.
Tajik Foreign Ministry said on December 20, 2013 that it is looking into German media’s claim. The ministry cast doubts on the claim, saying “German cars cross several state borders before reaching Tajikistan” and that “any falsified documents would have been discovered by customs services on those borders.”
On June 21, 2014, Tajik Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimzoda gave a press conference in Dushanbe on cars stolen from Germany.
“From 2011 to April 2014, 4,245 German expensive cares were checked through the INTERPOL stolen motor vehicles (SMV) database and 78 cars stolen from Germany were detected,” the minister said, noting that there are no relatives of President Emomali Rahmon among owners of those 78 cars stolen from Germany.
The minister noted that cars from Germany and the Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) are carried to Tajikistan mainly by rail and they cross several borders (Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan) before reaching Tajikistan. Appropriate documents are shown to customs services on those borders.
“During state registration, each vehicle delivered to Tajikistan is checked through ASF and I-BATCH systems, which are connected to Interpol via 1-Link channel,” Rahimzoda said.
“In 2012 and 2013, we received applications from the Berlin prosecutor’s office regarding five BMWs,” said he minister. “Tajik investigative authorities took necessary measures and revealed that the cars had arrived in Tajikistan with fake identity numbers and all those cars were arrested following ruling handed down by a court in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district on November 16, 2013.”
He further added that a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Germany on security and crime prevention was drafted in 2011. Point 13 of Article 1 of this agreement reportedly provides for cooperation in combating international trafficking in stolen vehicles.
“Last month, a group of German experts arrived in Tajikistan and a joint working group negotiated the agreement text,” said Rahimzoda. “The draft agreement is currently in Germany for final endorsement and at the next stage we will determine the date and venue of signing the agreement.”
