DUSHANBE, January 6, 2015, Asia-Plus -- A court in Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district has decided to confiscate 22,000 U.S. dollars found in an apartment of Shuhrat Qudrtatov in favor of Ms. Mohira Bobojarabova, who accused controversial Tajik tycoon Zayd Saidov of rape.

We will recall that Ms. Mohira Boborajabova filed the lawsuit against one of Saidov’s defense lawyers, Shuhrat Qudratov, in the court in Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district in April last year, noting that Qudratov allegedly spread false information about her through Internet.  She demanded a compensation of 200,000 somoni for moral damages.

Meanwhile, Rahmatillo Zoirov, who is representing Shuhrat Qudratov in his bribery trial, says that the arrested money cannot be confiscated in favor of the third party.  

The court in Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district is considering the case of Shuhrat Qudratov, who was arrested on July 21, 2014.

An official statement released by the Tajik anticorruption agency on July 22, 2014 stated that lawyer Shuhrat Qudratov was arrested on July 21 when allegedly taking a bribe from his client Amirali Sulamayev, who is accused of fraud.  According to the statement, Mr. Qudratov intended to pass on this bribe to one of the judges of a court in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district “in order to ensure an acquittal verdict of the court”.

On these grounds, criminal proceedings were instituted against Mr. Qudratov under three articles of Tajikistan’s Penal Code: Article 36 – complicity in crime; Article 32 – preparation for crime and an attempt to commit a crime; Article 320 – bribery.

The case moved to the court in Dushanbe’s Firdavsi district on November 20.

Shuhrat Qudratov is the deputy head of the Social-Democratic Party and SDP leader Rahmatillo Zoyirov is representing Qudratov during his bribery trial.