KULOB, August 6, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- The Kulob prosecutor’s office today made objection against verdict passed by the Temourmalik district court on Azamjon Mirzoyev, former head of the farming unit named after Safarzoda in the Vose district.

 We will recall that the Kulob prosecutor’s office issued an arrest warrant for Azamjon Mirzoyev, who is also known in the region as Azam the Business, in April this year. 

From 1999 to 2006, Mirzoyev was head of the farming unit named after Safarzoda in the Vose district and over the mentioned period, he had illegally allotted plots, ranging from 0.1 to 13 hectares, to local residents for housing and sowing with various agricultural crops.  A damage caused to the state by illegal actions of Mirzoyev has been estimated at 135,000 somonis (equivalent to $39,500), and the Kulob prosecutor’s office brought formal charges against Mirzoyev under the provisions of three articles of the Penal Code of Tajikistan – Article 247 (fraud), Article 295 (abuse of powers by employees of commercial and other organizations), and Article 334 (arbitrariness).

However, the Temourmalik district court that considered criminal proceedings instituted against Mirzoyev passed a suspended sentence of one year on him.       

According to the deputy Khatlon prosecutor in charge of the Kulob region, Alfattoh Roziqov, the verdict is too mild, and therefore, the Kulob prosecutor made the objection.