Six months later, Tajik law enforcement agencies are unable to solve the crime, as a result of which 14 prisoners died.
Prosecutor General, Yusuf Rahmon, said that a criminal case was opened on the fact of the incident and a special investigation team was created, an investigation is underway, it is under his personal control.
Recall that in July 2019, 128 prisoners were transferred from the north of Tajikistan to Dushanbe and other areas of the south of the country. On the way, a group of prisoners became ill, and upon arrival in the capital 14 of them died. According to the official version, the prisoners were poisoned with bread, which one of the prisoners handed out in the police van. “The investigation should identify the persons who handed over the poisoned bread to the prisoner,” the Prosecutor General said.
Meanwhile, the parents of some of the deceased prisoners stated that there were signs of beatings on the bodies of their sons. Law enforcement agencies do not comment on this fact. Moreover, the bodies of prisoners were handed over to relatives as discreetly as possible, with the requirement that they be buried immediately without wide publicity. At the same time, law enforcement officials carefully watched the funeral of the dead prisoners.
An ACCA source, on condition of anonymity, said that the disclosure of this crime is artificially delayed, because the real perpetrators occupy too high posts.
“During every transfer of prisoners, almost all law enforcement and security agencies participate, and the Prosecutor General’s office controls this process. So, the main culprit is the Prosecutor General, Yusuf Rahmon. Therefore, the disclosure of this crime will be maximally delayed, so that people forget about it over time,” the source noted. “The version of poisoned bread is not good at all, because prisoners could get bread only in a pre-trial detention center or from a convoy. In this case, it was very easy to find the guilty, because there are a lot of witnesses to the incident.”
ACCA source emphasized that the real reason for the death of prisoners is completely different. “It is impossible to imagine how they were able to put 128 prisoners in 3 police vans. It resembles sprats in a tin and even worse. Moreover, according to the instructions, there should be two guards for every prisoner, but in Tajikistan this norm has not been implemented for a long time. And when such incidents happen, someone also needs to answer for this violation of the instructions, and since the whole process goes with the approval of the Prosecutor’s office and other structures, everyone is guilty,” the source noted. “Possibly, the escorts were 2 times less than necessary, but they should also be in the police vans.” It turns out that there were about 200 people in 3 vans. Travel time from Khujand to Dushanbe with stops is at least 6 hours, and it was happened in the summer, when the temperature in the country was 45 degrees. Accordingly, the temperature inside the vans was up to 65 degrees, so a huge number of people simply did not have enough air. Therefore, the only version of what happened is carbon dioxide poisoning. It is clear that law enforcement agencies will never voice this version, that’s why they came up with a fantastic version about poisoned bread.”
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