Mukim Ashurov, a relative by marriage of Tajikistan’s prime minister Kohir Rasulzoda, has been detained on suspicion of fraud, Radio Ozodi reports.
The Department of Internal Affairs in the country’s Sughd region said on May 30 that “the case against Mukim Ashurov is being investigated under Part 4 of Article 247 (Fraud committed on a large scale) of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan,” which carries a penalty of a fine or imprisonment for 8 to 12 years. Ashurov, 65, is currently being held in Khujand’s pre-trial detention center.
“It was established that several years ago, he entered the confidence of a resident of [the city of] Khujand and received from him 320 thousand dollars for the sale of a four-story store. But then he sold the store to another person but did not return the amount he had originally received,” a statement from the department says.
There is not much information about Ashurov in the public domain. According to official data he is a resident of Sughd’s Bobojon Gafurov district. A man named Mukim Ashurov has a Facebook profile that says that he lives in Khujand, and works as the director of a travel agency.
He is said to be very influential within the circle of the country’s prime minister, Kohir Rasulzoda. Ashurov’s son, Parviz Ashurov, is married to Rasulzoda’s eldest daughter.
