A police investigator has been caught red-handed while taking bribe from a prostitutes’ den owner.
According to the press center of the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption, Ramziddin Safarov, the investigator at the police station in Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district, was caught red-handed last week while taking bribe from the owner of the prostitutes’ den.
He reportedly demanded 1,000 U.S. dollars from the den owner for not instituted criminal proceedings him under provisions of Article 239 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – den holding, pandering.
Article 239 stipulates that den holding or pandering is punishable by up to five years in prison or by a fine up to 100,000 somoni.
Prostitution-related activities such as soliciting, procuring and brothel keeping are prohibited in Tajikistan.
Recall, Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry was cracking down on prostitution in June 2014, detaining 505 sex workers during the campaign’s first few days. Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimzoda launched the operation in early June after publicly expressing concern about the growth of “immoral crimes,” including prostitution (an administrative offense) and human trafficking. “People who are detained for immoral crimes or have venereal diseases, their names, photos and fingerprints will be entered to a special electronic database,” the minister said on June 5, 2014.
Sex workers who were detained had to undergo tests; the results showed 450 out of 505 detainees were carrying some sort of sexually transmitted disease (STD), the Interior Ministry said on June 12, 2014. Several dozen were reportedly fined.
