The former deputy chief of the anticorruption agency, Davlatbek Khairzoda, and the former deputy head of the Customs Service’s office in Sughd province, Faridoun Benazirzoda, who had previously served in the anticorruption agency, disagree with the sentence passed upon them and the appeals court of Tajikistan's Supreme Court will consider their appeal on September 19, a source at the Supreme Court told Asia-Plus in an interview.
According to him, Khairzoda and Benazirzoda consider that the sentence passed upon them is too severe and ask the appeals court to consider their case in all fairness.
Recall, Davlatbek Khairzoda and Faridoun Benazirzoda were sentenced to 10 ½ years in jail each on July 28. They were found guilty of bribe taking.
As it had been reported earlier, a prosecutor in the trial of eight other anticorruption officers in late August asked the Supreme Court to sentence them to between seven and seventeen year in prison. The prosecutor asked for the longest jail term — 17 years – for Firouz Kholmurodzoda, the former head of the investigative directorate at the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption.
A source at the Prosecutor-General’s Office says the prosecutor also asked to sentence Firdavs Abdughafforzoda (Firdavs Niyozbadalov), an investigator and son-in-law of former MP and secretary general of the Security Council Amirqul Azimov, to 15 years.
Besides, the prosecutor asked to sentence Amirsho Sultonzoda, the former head of the anticorruption agency for Dushanbe and nephew of former MP Saodat Amrishoyeva, and Qosim Saidzoda, the former head of the department for combating economic crimes in the sphere of transport, to 12 and seven years respectively.
As source at the Supreme Court of Tajikistan says a verdict is expected within the next few days.
The trial of the anticorruption officers charged with bribe taking that began on July 19 is closed to the public and neither the prosecution nor defense lawyers would comment to journalists about the case.
Fourteen people were under investigation. Ten of them are former employees of the anticorruption agency, while four others belong to other bodies.
Among those named by the head of the Supreme Court, Shermuhammad Shohiyon, at a news conference in Dushanbe on July 17 were the former deputy head of the anticorruption agency Davlatbek Khairzoda and the head of the investigative directorate, Firouz Kholmurodzoda.
More than 10 top investigators and officials of the anticorruption agency were arrested on April 24
Thus, a former deputy chief of the anticorruption agency, Davlatbek Khairzoda, was reportedly detained at the airport of the northern city of Khujand as he was on his way to Russia.
Among the detained officers there were also Jamoliddin Muhammadzoda, the head of the inspections department, and Firouz Kholmurodzoda, the chief of the investigative directorate. Firdavs Niyozbadalov was reportedly also arrested. He was involved in the investigation into the former minister of industry Zayd Saidov. Saidov’s lawyers and human rights activists had complained that Niyozbadalov used unlawful methods and resorted to physical intimidation during that investigation.
In his written reply to the Asia-Plus inquiry letter, the anticorruption agency chief Sulaimon Sultonzoda noted on May 24 that a special investigative group had been set up to investigate the case of the arrested anticorruption officers.
“Reports released by some media outlets that allegedly 35 million dollars were found in the home of Davlatbek Kharizoda’s parents, 1.3 million dollars and six kilograms of gold were found in Firouz Kholmurdozoda’s home and sacks of dollars and jewelries were discovered in the home of Firdavs Niyozbadalov (Abdughafforzoda) are absolutely baseless,” Sultonzoda said in his letter.
He also denied information that the medical certificate of the Moscow-based “Bio-Papa” lab regarding Zayd Saidov’s criminal case is falsified as unfounded.
The Prague-based website akhbor.com posted photos claiming to show a humungous trove of dollars being discovered in the family home of the one of the suspects, Khairzoda. As the website explained, the pictures have been widely circulated by mobile phone users in Tajikistan, as though that somehow constituted evidence of anything.
Meanwhile, EurasiaNet.org reports that the photos, however, turned out not to be from Tajikistan at all, but of some other unspecified nation — possibly Ecuador.
Tajikistan ranked joint 136th out 165 countries in Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index — the same as Nigeria and 17 position below Russia.
Tajikistan signed up to the United Nations Convention against Corruption in 2006 and an anticorruption strategy for 2013-2020 was adopted in 2012.
