The preliminary investigation has established that two border officers, involved in a deadly traffic accident in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO), were in state of drunkenness.
An official source at the military prosecutor’s office of the Khorog garrison says criminal proceedings have been instituted against them under the provisions of Article 212 (3) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – violation of the road traffic regulations entailing death of two and more persons.
This Article provides for prison sentence of 5 to 10 years.
“The preliminary investigation has established the border officers were in state of drunkenness,” the source said, noting that the order officers were detained on the same day and they are currently under custody.
Recall, two persons were killed and two others were seriously injured on December 1 as a vehicle belonging to the Tajik Border Troops crashed into a fixed-route tax (minivan) in Khorog. Among those killed was a pregnant woman, therefore, one could say that the accident left three dead.
The accident took place in the area near the Khorog hydroelectric power plant (HPP). The border officer reportedly lost control of his Toyota RAV-4 and it crashed into the fixed-route tax. As a result of the collision, two women, one of them was pregnant, died after falling in to the hydropower plant’s, canal. Two other persons, the diver and one of passengers, sustained serious injuries and were hospitalized.
The news of the accident has stirred social networks. Many people wrote on Facebook in early December that the border guards (the vehicle belongs to the Border Troops of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS) – number plate 009KM) were in a state of drunkenness and they fled the accident scene.
