Two members of local council (Majlis) of the city of Istiqlol (formerly Taboshar) in Sughd province – Mr. Ravshan Hasanov and Ms. Saodat Sharifzoda – have got lengthy jail terms for large-scale fraud and an attempt to bribe an anticorruption officer.
The Khujand city court sentenced Ms. Saodat Sharifzoda and Mr. Ravshan Hasanov to 9 and 5 ½ years in prison respectively.
The sentence followed their conviction on charges of a large-scale fraud (Article 247 (4) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code) and giving bribe to an official (Article 320 (2) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code).
The third person involved in the case – Saodat Sharifzoda’s driver Akpar Ismoilov – has been found guilty of fraud and sentenced to 8 years in jail. The court reportedly also imposed an US$85,000 fine on Ismoilov.
Recall, Karim Ibrohimov, the chief of the anticorruption agency’s office for Sughd province, told Asia-Plus on September 12 that Ravshan Hasanov has offered a US$2000 bribe to an anticorruption officer on behalf of Saodat Sharifzoda for concealment of a crime.
According to him, using her official status, Saodat Sharifzoda together with her driver Akpar Ismoilov fraudulently collected 280,000 U.S. dollars from several residents of Istiqlol during 2013.
The criminal proceedings were reportedly instituted after it had become known that a certain citizen four years ago gave the convicts a US$200,000 bribe for privatization of a number of state-owned facilities in the province, including a kindergarten in the Jabbor-Rasoulov district.
Over the first six months of this year, 17 cases of bribery have been reported in the northern Sughd province.
