Experts serving at the Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan will help establish the cause of death of Abdurasoul Nazarov who died after one-day police custody in Dushanbe.  

At the urgent request of Nazarov’s relatives the autopsy findings have been handed over by the Dushanbe prosecutor’s office to experts serving at the Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan and the Ministry of Defense of Tajikistan, Abdurasoul’s brother, Abdusamad Nazarov, told Asia-Plus in an interview.   

According to him, the experts will submit their conclusions on the cause of death of Abdurasoul Nazarov to the Dushanbe prosecutor’s office in the near future.  

Recall, Abdurasoul Nazarov’s body was exhumed on April 7 following his relatives’ demand.

“But the exhumation was carried out by the same experts who had prepared the previous medical certificate of the cause of the death of my brother,” Abdusamad Nazarov said.  “They said the certificate will be submitted to the Dushanbe prosecutor’s office, but I do not believe that they will tell the prosecutor’s office anything new.”

Abdurasoul Nazarov’s relatives also deny that he was drug addict and they have an appropriate document on this subject from the Kulob narcology center.  

As it had been reported earlier, the Interior Ministry on April 4 launched an internal investigation into the death of Abdurasoul Nazarov to establish whether officers from Dushanbe’s Sino-2 police station are really guilty of the death of Abdurasoul Nazarov or not.  

Resident of the city of Kulob, Abdurasoul Nazarov, who was temporarily living with his family in Dushanbe, was detained by officers from police station Sino-2 in Dushanbe’s Sino district on March 28 on suspicion of being involved in drug trafficking.

On March 29, police officers took Nazarov to the Qariyai Bolo Hospital.  Meanwhile a source at the Qariyai Bolo Hospital says Nazarov was already dead when police officers were taking him to the hospital. 

An official source at the law enforcement authorities said Nazarov had had a heart attack when he had been taken to the police station and he had died on the way to the hospital.

Meanwhile, Nazarov’s wife, Sadbarg Bobokhonova, says there were traces of beating on her husband’s body.  Nazarov’s relatives say they have made photos of traces of torture on his body.   

Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, locally known as Radio Ozodi, on March 30 quoted a source at the investigative bodies as saying, “The preliminary examination has established that Abdurasoul Nazarov’s heart stopped because of overdose.”  “But this is just a preliminary conclusion. Investigation is under way and the final conclusion will be announced later,” the source added.