As the fallout from a criminal investigation targeting Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of President Islam Karimov, continues to resonate in Uzbekistan, several high-ranking law-enforcement officers have been arrested on corruption charges in Tashkent.
The two probes may not be linked, but the latest arrests suggest that the elite infighting that has destabilized Uzbekistan over the last year may be spilling into a turf war between the country’s powerful security agencies.
The latest investigation targets the State Customs Service. Among the senior officers rounded up were the head of customs for Tashkent Region, Lieutenant Sirozhiddin Gulamov, and his deputy, Umar Bekov, Uzbekistan’s Podrobno news agency reported on September 30.
Another of the five detainees named was Major Abdusattor Abduraimov, the head of the Oybek border crossing on the frontier with Tajikistan. A chief inspector from Oybek and another inspector from the Gisht-Kuprik crossing on the frontier with Kazakhstan (better known as Chernyayevka), were also arrested, the report said. It quoted an unidentified source in the customs service for Tashkent Region, where both crossings are located.
The detainees are suspected of setting up an extortion ring and have already been charged with several crimes, including bribery, Podrobno said. They are alleged to have extorted money from entrepreneurs crossing official border checkpoints, where shakedowns are common during what is often a protracted and stressful process.
↧
Uzbekistan: Turf War in Tashkent?
↧