Tajik ex-premier detained at Boryspil airport
Kyiv, February 6 (AZERTAC) - Tajik media have reported the detention of former Prime Minister of Tajikistan Abdumalik Abdullajanov at Kyiv Boryspil International Airport.
Radio Ozodi (Tajik service of Radio Liberty) reported referring to an Interpol official in Ukraine that Abdullajanov arrived in Ukraine from the United States, where he has been living in recent years. The ex-premier was detained at the request of the Tajik authorities, who have accused him of an attempt to organize a revolution and committing other crimes, according to Radio Ozodi.
The article also reads that Abdullajanov is on Interpol’s list of people wanted in Tajikistan under the name Abdulojon Abdulojonov, and he is wanted on suspicion of being involved in organized crime and terrorism.
Sources in the Tajik police, in a conversation with Interfax-Ukraine, confirmed that Abdullajanov has been detained and said that they will demand that the ex-premier be extradited to Tajikistan from Ukraine.
“Yes, Abdullajanov was detained at Kyiv airport by our request. We will seek his extradition,” one source said.
“He has been on the wanted list for almost twenty years. He is accused under Article 306 (seizure of power by force or retention of power by force) and a number of other articles,” another source said.
The public liaisons department of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine told Interfax-Ukraine that a Tajik citizen, who was on a wanted list, has been detained at Boryspil airport. The ministry did not specify the detainee’s name.
“Yesterday [February 5, 2013] the Ukrainian police detained at Boryspil airport a citizen of Tajikistan born in 1949, who had been wanted on suspicion of having committed several serious crimes in Tajikistan,” the ministry said.
According to the Ukrainian ministry, the issue on the extradition of the detainee is being considered. The Interior Ministry also specified that the detainee had been on a wanted list for 16 years.
Abdullajanov, 64, was born in Khujand. He graduated from Odessa Technological Institute.
In Soviet times he worked for the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic government.
In September 1992 he was appointed as Tajik Prime Minister. He resigned from the post in 1993 and was appointed Tajik Ambassador to Russia.
In 1994 he nominated himself in the first presidential elections in Tajikistan. According to official data, he lost the elections to the current President of Tajikistan Emomalii Rahmon. After the election, he left for Russia and in 1998 he moved to the United States.
The Tajik authorities accuse Abdullajanov of organizing an attempt to assassinate Rahmon on April 30, 1997, when the president was wounded in the leg. The ex-premier has rejected the accusations in interviews.
Tajikistan is to hold scheduled presidential election in November 2013. In recent months there appeared allegations that Abdullajanov supports an oppositional candidate for the presidency. The ex-premier has not been giving interviews for some time and his position on the issue remains unknown.
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