DUSHANBE, October 13, 2014, Asia-Plus — Imam khatib (the leader of prayers in Friday prayer mosque (facility built for weekly Friday prayers) from Qurghon Teppa, the capital of southern Khatlon province faces charge of drug peddling.
According to the Drug Control Agency (DCA) press center, a 36-year-old imam khatib of the Abubakri Siddiq Mosque in Qurghon Teppa has been detained in the Vakhsh district of Khatlon province on suspicion of drug peddling.
Four small vaseline boxes and one wrap of narcotic drug that tested positive to raw opium have been confiscated from him, the DCA press center reports.
The preliminary investigation has reportedly established that the imam khatib was taking narcotics himself and also selling them.
Two people who were supplying narcotics to the imam khatib have been arrested as well.
Criminal proceedings have been instituted against the alleged drug peddlers under the provisions of Article 200 (2) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – drug trafficking; an investigation is under way.
