DUSHANBE, May 12, 2010, Asia-Plus -- President Emomali Rahmon who is also Head of the Government yesterday signed a number of decrees introducing a number of staff changes to the Government.

Abdurahim Kholiqov, formerly head of the department of constitutional guarantees of rights of citizens within President’s Executive Office, was appointed to head the Committee for Religious Affairs under the Government of Tajikistan.

Mavlon Mukhtorov, who had previously been deputy Minister of Culture, was appointed deputy head of the Committee for Religious Affairs.

Besides, by government’s decree Colonel Saymiddin Mirzoyev was relieved of his post of deputy chief of the Main Border Guards Directorate within the State Committee for National Security (GKNB).

We will recall that Colonel Saymiddin Mirzoyev was caught by the anticorruption officers red-handed in mid-April when he was taking bribe (15,000 U.S. dollars) for concealing a drug-trafficking crime.  Criminal proceedings were instituted against Mirzoyev under the provisions of Article 319 (bribery) of Tajikistan’s Penal Code.