TAJIKISTAN: NARCOTICS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND JUSTICE SECTOR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 000907 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, INL/AAE (BUHLER) JUSTICE FOR DUCOT AND NEWCOMBE DEFENSE FOR KLUG E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR KCRM KJUS PGOV PREL RF TI SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN: NARCOTICS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND JUSTICE SECTOR UPDATE, JUNE 2008 REF: Dushanbe 395 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Tajikistan's Drug Control Agency intends to move its Kazakhstan liaison office to Osh, Kyrgyzstan. The Agency's annual counter-drug effort entitled "Poppy - 2008", is intercepting more marijuana than opium or heroin. The Ministry of Internal Affairs Counter-Narcotics Department seized the first batch of precursor chemicals in 2008. President Rahmon signed new laws strengthening citizens' access to information and strengthening the definition of terrorist activities to explicitly cover a number of illicit actions and bringing Tajikistan's laws into closer alignment with international obligations. The Supreme Court sentenced three activists of the religious extremist organization, the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU),to long prison terms. End Summary. -------------- INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS -------------- ¶2. (U) Tajikistan's Drug Control Agency intends to move its Kazakhstan liaison office to Osh, Kyrgyzstan to facilitate joint operations of the drug control agencies of the two countries against transnational drug-trafficking groups. The Agency stated that the Tajikistani officer assigned to the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Center (CARICC) headquartered in Almaty can coordinate with other member states, including Kazakhstan. The DCA office had operated in Kazakhstan since October 2004. The Tajikistani counter-narcotics agency has liaison officers in four Afghan provinces bordering with Tajikistan - Badakhshan, Kunduz, Balkh, and Takhar. -------------- NARCOTICS AND WEAPONS SEIZURES -------------- ¶3. (U) The Drug Control Agency's anti-drug operation, dubbed "Poppy-2008", is under way, but appears to mainly target marijuana. To date, Agency officers destroyed two acres of "Indian marijuana" plants on the Urunkhojayev Collective Farm in the Bobojon Gafurov district of Sugd Oblast in northern Tajikistan. In the Sugdian city of Chkalovsk, the Agency destroyed over 9,600 bushes of "Indian hemp". In the Darvoz district of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast, the agents destroyed "Indian marijuana" plants in Kurgovad. ¶4. (SBU) At the Nizhniy Pyanj checkpoint between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, on June 20 Tajikistani Customs officers confiscated an 18th century musket-pistol from a U.S. citizen traveling to Tajikistan from Afghanistan. Customs officers found the pistol in the luggage of an American businessman working in Mazar-i Sharif, Afghanistan. Press reports that the AmCit did not have export documents for the musket-pistol. Reportedly the businessman purchased the pistol for the collection of his father. Expert determined that the pistol was inoperable. Customs Officers confiscated the pistol and fined Mr. Port 350 somoni ($100). ¶5. (U) Ministry of Internal Affairs Counter Narcotics Department officers seized more than 86 kilograms of raw opium in an operation in Dushanbe's Firdavsi district from a car belonging to Shuhrat Valiyev, a resident of Khatlon's Farkhor district. Valiyev said that the drugs belong to Afghan national Mahmadsobit Valadi Abdughaffor. -------------- PRECURSORS -------------- Q ¶6. (U) On June 20, officers from the Ministry of Interior Counter Narcotics Department detained two residents of Dushanbe on suspicion of illicit precursor trafficking. Counter Narcotics Department officers seized 156 kilograms of acetic anhydride from a Mercedes car belonging to 52-year old Dushanbe resident Habibullo Karimov and also detained 53-year old Dushanbe resident, Ibrohim Aliqoyev. -------------- DUSHANBE 00000907 002 OF 002 CORRUPTION -------------- ¶7. (U) Officers from the Anti-Corruption Agency arrested Zainiddin Saifutdinov, former head of the Housing and Communal Services Directorate 8 in Dushanbe's Sino district, on suspicion of bribery. Anti-Corruption Agency charged Saifutdinov with having taken bribes totaling $34,100 from four local residents, promising to provide them with apartments. He is charged under Article 247 (fraud) and Article 323 (service forgery) of Tajikistan's Criminal Code. ¶8. (U) The Anti-Corruption Agency charged Hasan Almatov, an inspector with the Hissar Tax Inspectorate, with robbery and embezzlement, according to the Anti-Corruption Agency's press service. Almatov accepted 10,000 somonies ($2,900) and some building materials from a local entrepreneur for issuing forged tax payment documents. The Anti-Corruption Agency charged Almatov under Article 245 (embezzlement or misappropriation) and Article 323 (service forgery) of Tajikistan's Criminal Code. -------------- JUDICIAL REFORM DEVELOPMENTS -------------- ¶9. (SBU) President Rahmon signed a number of laws adopted by the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan's lower chamber of parliament) and approved by the Majlisi Milli (Tajikistan's upper chamber of parliament). Of particular note is the new law guaranteeing the "right of access to information," which provides a legal basis for citizens to obtain general (i.e., public) information and information about activities of government agencies. Previously, civil groups could not point to concrete legal authority when requesting information from government ministries (including updates to the Tajikistani legal codes). This law gives citizens a stronger legal basis for demanding government transparency. Regulations implementing this law, including punishment for non-compliance, will be introduced shortly to the Civil and Administrative Codes. (Note: The media community has expressed criticism of the new law, claiming that it in fact restricts the right to information, by imposing fees and bureaucratic procedures when applying for information to state structures.) ¶10. (SBU) Other significant changes include amendments to Tajikistan's Criminal Code that expand the definition of terrorist activities to explicitly cover a number illicit actions, such as fund-raising for terrorists, illegal production of nuclear or radioactive materials, and crimes affecting airport security, that bring the definition more inline with international norms. These changes emphasize President Rahmon's previous statements (reftel) calling for Tajikistan to update its laws in order to fulfill its international obligations. -------------- SIGNIFICANT COURT CASES -------------- ¶11. (U) The Supreme Court sentenced three activists of the religious extremism organization, the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) to extensive terms in prison. The justices ruled that IJU activists Abdurahim Abdulloev, Zainiddin Nazruddinov, and Olim Buzurukov serve their sentences (nearly 20 years each) in a high-security penal colony. According to the public relations center of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB),the convicted men were members of the QNational Security (GKNB),the convicted men were members of the Taliban and actively participated in fighting in Afghanistan in the late 1990s and early 2000s and committed a number of serious crimes. (Note: Tajikistan considers the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU),also known as Islamic Jihad Group (IJG),a terrorist organization. It splintered from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) in 2002, and conducted several attacks in Uzbekistan. End note.) According to the GKNB, the main goal of the IJU is to destabilize the social and political situation in the Central Asian region and create a theocratic state. HUSHEK