DUSHANBE, June 6, Asia-Plus — A group of Afghan prisoners serving their sentence in the prison of the city of Vahdat (20 kilometers to the east of Dushanbe) asked Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to send them to Afghan prisons to serve the rest of their sentence.
Ninety-four prisoners signed the letter to the President, BBC’s Persian Service reported. In the letter they assure that some of them are seriously ill and have not seen their families for a long time. As they said they cannot be set free on parole.
“We ask you to solve this problem according to the democratic laws of Tajikistan,” said the letter.
Tajikistan and Afghanistan signed a document regulating exchange of prisoners for serving their sentence in their motherland in June, 2006.
However this document still has not come into operation because it was not ratified by Tajikistan, Afghan Ambassador to Tajikistan Said Muhammad Khairkhoh said. “The protocol was ratified by the Afghan Parliament however the Tajik Parliament has not still ratified the protocol,” BBC cited the Afghan diplomat.
Meanwhile the Tajik MFA assures that the document is under consideration of the Tajik Parliament and will be ratified soon.
According to official data over 200 Afghan citizens charged with illicit drug trafficking or illegally crossing the border are serving their sentences in Tajik prisons.
