Tajik law enforcement authorities have not launched an investigation into death of Tajik baby in St. Petersburg’s custody.
“Tajik law enforcement authorities have not launched an investigation into death of Umarali Nazarov because the tragedy took place in Russia and Russian law enforcement authorities have investigated his death,” Umarjon Emomali, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry of Tajikistan, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
Recall that the law enforcement authorities in the Russian city of St. Petersburg have closed the high-profile case of a Tajik child's death in the city's custody.
The Investigative Committee in St. Petersburg said proceedings were officially closed on October 20 “due to the absence of crime in the case.”
Five-month-old Umarali Nazarov reportedly died from generalized infection – cytomegalovirus infection and parainfluenza.
Meanwhile, Tajik Interior Ministry says this infection has not been detected in blood of baby’s mother, who underwent tests on arrival in Dushanbe in November 2015.
Umarali Nazarov died on October 14, 2015, in a St. Petersburg hospital less than 24 hours after being separated from his mother.
He died a day after his parents were briefly detained in St. Petersburg and accused of violating migration rules.
Russian officials said the child had died in hospital after suffering respiratory problems.
The parents challenged this, insisting the boy was healthy.
Russian authorities agreed to open a probe into the child's death only after an outcry not only from Tajik migrants and human rights activists in Russia, but government officials in Tajikistan as well.
Tajikistan's government has demanded that the Russian authorities investigate the boy's death, which has sparked protests by Tajik migrants and human rights activists in Russia.
Amid the outcry, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon personally requested that the Russian government investigate the circumstances of Umarali's death. And during a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on October 30, 2015 he received assurances that Russian investigators would get to the bottom of the matter.
Zarina Yunusova and the body of her deceased five-month-old son arrived in Dushanbe on November 16, 2015. Yunusova told journalists on her arrival that her son had been absolutely healthy when police in St. Petersburg took him away from her and her husband last month.
More than a million Tajiks reportedly travel to Russia every year to work as migrants. Document checks and detentions are common, as is occasional violence, and the discrimination they face there is well-documented.
