Two senior officers of the Main Penitentiary Directorate of the Ministry of Justice face charge of bribery.

According to the anticorruption agency press center, Marouf Qarayev, the chief inspector with the Correctional Labor Department of the Main Penitentiary Directorate, and Bozorboy Qurbonov, the head of the Corrective Labor Department of the Main Penitentiary Directorate, have been detained on suspicion of involvement in bribery. 

They reportedly demanded 5,000 somoni from Dushanbe resident sentenced to corrective labor; otherwise they threatened to draw up a report that he allegedly violated the registration rules.

Qurbonov and Qarayev were reportedly caught red-handed when taking 4,000 somoni from him.  

Criminal proceedings have been instituted against them under the provisions of Article 319 of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – bribe taking; an investigation is under way.