DUSHANBE, May 12, Asia-Plus  -- Of property belonging to the top manager of the Dushanbe company M&P Marouf Orifov, only two residential houses and a car Toyota Camry are liable to confiscation, Inoyat Aglayev, one of defense lawyers of Marouf Orifov, said in an interview with Asia-Plus. 

According to him, Orifov pawned major part of his property to get a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).  “The  Bank provided a loan of some $5 million to the company in 2006,” the lawyer said.     

As far as two residential houses and the car are concerned, 50 percent of this property will be probably considered as belonging to Orifov’s wife, Aglayev noted.  

            In the meantime, Shavkat Abdulkhairov, a Justice of the Supreme Court of Tajikistan, who took in the trial of Orifov’s case, noted that the appeals court of Tajikistan’s Supreme Court is considering an appeal lodged Orifov’s lawyers against sentenced passed by the Supreme Court on their clients.  “The appeals court is expected to hand down its ruling at the end of this month,” the judge said.  Abdulkhairov refrained from giving further details.    

We will recall that the Supreme Court on April 8, 2008 ruled that Marouf Orifov, director general of company M&P, the owner of Orima supermarkets network, be given a jail term of eight years and six months and that he should serve it in a high-security penal colony.  The sentence also included confiscation of personal property.   The sentence followed his conviction on charges of tax evasion (Article 320, Part 2) and bribe giving (Article 292, Part 2, Point B).  

As it had been reported earlier, during the of shops in Dushanbe, conducted in June 2007 jointly by commission of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) and State Agency Tojikstandart (Tajik state agency for standardization, metrology and certification) at the warehouses of M&P, 24 types of confectionery with expired dates were found out.  The weight of the low quality products was 1,547 kilograms for a total amount of 46,000 somonis.  M. Orifov was reportedly arrested during giving a bribe for a total amount of $10,000.

            The company M&P opened its first supermarket in Dushanbe in 1993, and 30 percent of shares belong to Holland company.