Ms. Aziza Haidarova, a former aide to imprisoned judge in Bobojon-Ghafourov district court, Mr. Rustam Saidahmadzoda, has been released from prison through an amnesty.
Ms. Haidarova told Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service on September 12 that she had been released from prison after she covered all "financial damages" caused by her activities after being found guilty of fraud, embezzlement, and forgery.
Recall, Haidarova was sentenced to 10 years in prison in December last year on charges of fraud and illegally obtaining property.
Her former boss, Rustam Saidahmadzoda, was arrested in June 2022. The Supreme Court had initially launched disciplinary proceedings against him at the request of the Prosecutor-General’s Office in July 2021, several weeks after he cleared a defendant, saying the prosecution hadn’t provided sufficient evidence to convict them.
The proceedings were instituted on the grounds that during 2020 and the first five months of 2021, Saidahmadzoda handed down five decisions that were overturned by higher courts.
In April this year, Rustam Saidahmadzoda was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison on several charges, including abuse of office and fraud. His sentence was later cut by 18 months.
It is to be noted that acquittals are extremely rare in Tajikistan, where the judges — who are independent in name only — are expected to follow the line of the prosecution. According to official figures, Tajik courts receive about 11,000 cases a year. Only two defendants were cleared in 2020, and there were 11 acquittals in 2021. Not a single defendant was cleared of charges in the 5,508 criminal cases reviewed by Tajik courts over the first six months of 2022, according to RFE/RL Tajik Service.
There are more than 400 judges in Tajikistan and more than 30 judges have been arrested and dozens more dismissed or demoted over the past decade.
Official documents say the judges were dismissed for “discrediting the honor, dignity, and reputation” of the judicial system.
Graft reportedly remains widespread in Tajikistan, including in its criminal justice system. Critics say a lack of transparency in the government’s apparent clampdown on corruption in the judicial system and the closed trials have thrown the legitimacy of the process into question.
