DUSHANBE, May 4, 2016, Asia-Plus – A case of a Russian officer suspected of killing a Tajik woman has been remitted for further examination.
We will recall that Ivan Shcherbakov, a senior lieutenant with the Russian military base in Tajikistan, is suspected of killing the 22-year-old Tajik woman Shoira Jobirova
A source closed to Jobirova’s relatives says the military prosecutor’s office of Russia’s Central Military District has remitted the case for further examination.
According to the source, Ivan Shcherbakov is charged with deliberate homicide and a joint group of investigators of Tajikistan and Russia has investigated the case.
“After completion of the investigation, a court in the Russian military base in Tajikistan will consider the case,” the source said.
Shoira Jobirova was reportedly invited by Shcherbakov to an officer”s dormitory on the base where she was found dead on November 5, 2015.
Senior Lieutenant Ivan Shcherbakov, 26, was detained on November 9 and criminal proceedings have been instituted against him.
During the preliminary investigation, Shcherbakov said that he had no memory of the events of which he stands accused as he was heavily intoxicated at the time.
On November 10, Tajikistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian Ambassador to Tajikistan Igor Lyakin-Frolov to express its concern over the case.
In a statement released for media on November 10, the Tajik MFA, in particular, notes that “in the meeting, the ambassador was informed that these events are not in conformity with the spirit of traditional friendship and strategic partnership between our two nations.”
Tajik Foreign Ministry said it demanded that Russia objectively assess the incident and take necessary measures to avoid such acts being committed by Russian military personnel.
It was not the first such an incident involving Russian troops and locals. The killing comes shortly after two other officers serving at the 201st Russian military base near Dushanbe were convicted of murdering a local taxi driver.
Fyodor Basimov, a deputy platoon commander, to 17 years in jail on August 26, 2015, while former military unit commander Ildar Sakhapov received a 13-year sentence.
The two were arrested in August 2014 after taxi driver Rahimjon Teshaboyev, 36, was found dead near the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.
An autopsy revealed that Teshaboyev, a father of three, was severely beaten before his throat was slashed.
