DUSHANBE, May 28, 2015, Asia-Plus – Tajik Ombudsman Zarif Alizoda says his office has monitored health condition of the jailed ex-Interior Minister Yoqub Salimov.
“People say he is in critical health condition but it is not so,” Alizoda told reporters on May 28 during the presentation of the report on activities of the Ombudsman’s Office in 2014.
“Indeed, Salimov is not very well in view of his age (Salimov is 59-years-old) and a long stay in prison,” said Alizoda, “Our representative and a doctor recently visited him in cell and did not reveal any serious diseases.”
The ombudsman further noted that former presidential-guard commander Ghaffor Mirzoyev was also not in so bad health condition. “Our representative has visited Mirzoyev in prison and has been satisfied with Mirzoyev’s health condition. Of course, Mirzoyev has health problems because he has stayed in prison for a long time,” Alizoda said.
Yoqub Salimov and Ghaffor Mirzoyev were top field commanders in the Popular Front, a paramilitary group that supported the government during the five-year civil conflict in 1992-1997.
Yoqub Salimov was one of the most powerful figures in Tajik politics after civil war broke out in the spring of 1992. Yoqub Salimov was once Tajikistan’s interior minister, ambassador to Turkey, and chairman of the state customs committee.
In 1990 Yoqub Salimov was convicted for taking part in Dushanbe riots. When Tajik Civil War broke out, Salimov was released from prison, and became one of leaders of the Popular Front. In 1997 he was charged with attempting a coup d”etat. Afterwards he fled from Tajikistan, but was arrested in Moscow in 2003. Salimov had been detained since July 2003 at Moscow”s Lefortovo prison. On February 24, 2004, he was extradited to Tajikistan. After a five-month trial that was held behind closed doors, the Supreme Court of Tajikistan found Salimov guilty of treason, banditry, and abuse of office and sentenced him to 15 years in prison on April 25, 2005.
Yoqub Salimov’s prison term was cut by two years in August 2011 under the partial amnesty granted to him.
Former presidential-guard commander Ghaffor Mirzoyev, who also headed the Tajik Drug Control Agency (DCA) under the Resident of Tajikistan, was arrested in August 2004 and sentenced in 2006 to life imprisonment on charges of planning an uprising against the government, murder, and other serious crimes.
