Several informed sources have confirmed that Tajikistan’s former foreign minister Hamrokhon Zarifi had been detained in Dushanbe.
It is reported that law enforcement agencies detained Zarifi on June 12th. Until June 16th he was held in Dushanbe’s temporary Ministry of Internal Affairs detention center. Still, the source has no information about where he was transferred for further detention. There were also reports that he was released after interrogation.
A source in Tajikistan’s law enforcement agencies said that “the detention and interrogation are related to an economic crime that was committed during the construction of the Foreign Ministry building during Zarifi’s time as head of the ministry.”
Hamrokhon Zarifi was arrested on the same day as Saidjafar Usmonzoda, a member of the Tajik parliament who was detained on charges of “attempting to seize state power.”
The Tajik opposition links Zarifi’s detention to the Usmonzoda case. The authorities have not commented.
