, March 29, Asia-Plus - A court in the Dushanbe district of Ismoili Somoni started a trial of nine persons, including officials from the Dushanbe orphanage “Chorbogh”, today. 

The source in the Ismoili Somoni district’s court has told Asia-Plus that court familiarized itself with materials of the case and judge Safarali Kholmatov is taking on the trial.  

Lawyer Oktam Sultonov is representing the former director of the orphanage Sadullo Yatimov.  The prosecution is represented by Jamshed Sangov, an official with the Dushanbe prosecutor’s office. 

As it had been reported earlier, the case of investigation of the cause of the tragic “Chorbogh” fire was brought into a court in the Ismoili Somoni district of Dushanbe on March 2.  Nine persons face criminal charges; of them, three, including the orphanage director Sadullo Yatimov, are under arrest and the remaining six others have given written undertakings not to leave a place.

The orphanage director faces charges under six articles of Tajikistan ’s Criminal Code, including negligent homicide, abuse of power, negligence, service forgery, embezzlement of state funds, and misappropriation of foreign aid.         

We will recall that a blaze broke out at the “Chorbogh” orphanage for children with intellectual disabilities in Dushanbe early on January 8, killing at least 13 children and injuring at least two others.  77 children were rescued, with one survivor with second-degree burns hospitalized in a burn-treatment facility.