On April 30, Ravshan Mutalibov, deputy chairman of the Society of Uzbeks of Khatlon, was arrested at the airport of Krasnodar, Russia, on charges of drug smuggling. His boss Salim Shamsiddinov, chairman of the Society of Uzbeks, went missing in mid-March of this year.

Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan, Rahmatullo Zoirov, told about activist’s arrest in Russia on his Facebook page.

“Ravshan Mutalibov believes that the case had been planned. According to him, the Krasnodar police were waiting for him at the airport. Out of 160 passengers, most of whom were migrant workers, only Mutalibov was called via microphone. A few seconds later they started checking his luggage and found 400 grams of heroin in his suitcase, which was later confiscated. Ravshan says that his suitcase’s lock was broken. He has no doubt that it was organized in Dushanbe airport,” states Rahmatullo Zoyirov’s statement in his Facebook page.

Arrested Ravshan Mutalibov is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan.

According to Rahmatullov Zoyirov, in February this year, before leaving for Russia, Ravshan Mutalibov was summoned to the police department in Kurgantyube city, where he was questioned by an investigator named Safar Safarov.

“Mutalibov said that Safar Safarov was involved in the case organized against it him. Safarov, deputy head of Department of the Interior, called him on the phone and interrogated him during three hours. During the interrogation, he asked Ravshan Mutalibov about the reasons he wanted to fly to Russia, and when his flight was scheduled. Ravshan Mutalibov planned to fly to Krasnodar on March 24. But due to the fact that he was directly involved in searchs for Shamsiddinov Salim, who had gone missing earlier, he had to postpone his trip to Russia”, said the leader of the Social Democrats.

President of the Society of Uzbeks Khatlon, Salim Shamsiddinov, left his house in the morning of March 15 and never came back. So far searchs for Shamsiddinov did not produce any results.

On the same day, the Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan issued a statement, which said that “Salim Shamsiddinov could have been kidnapped by the Tajik security services.”

According to the representatives of the party, their fears are not baseless, as previously, law enforcement officials in Khatlon called Salim Shamsiddinov not to cooperate with the party’s leader Rahmatullo Zoirov. They threatened Shamsiddinov with punishment in case he did not obey.

In spring of 2012, Shamsiddinov, who heads the Uzbek society since 2004, was beaten by unidentified men.

Later Salim Shamsiddinov said that he was attached due to his professional activities. He also stated that he had no doubt that the attack was a response to his critical opinions about “senseless policy of the government of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and the presidents of the two countries”.

The international rights organization Amnesty International has expressed concern over the disappearance of Salim Shamsiddinov, and called on the Tajik authorities to immediately launch an investigation on his missing.

Amnesty International also issued a statement in which it said that the disappearance of Salim Shamsiddinov, chairman of the Society of Uzbeks in Khatlon, may be a politically motivated kidnapping.

Police of Khatlon refuted the statement of the international organization about political motivation in the given case.

“In these days, when efforts to find Salim Shamsiddinov are not giving any results, the arrest of his deputy, Ravshan Mutalibov, in a Russian airport is causing even more anxiety among the ethnic Uzbeks of Tajikistan,” says an independent observer Gulandom Ashurova.

Representatives of the Social Democratic Party are hoping that their member Ravshan Mutalibov will be acquitted and released very soon.

“We have hired a lawyer Nikita Karpovich to protect Ravshan Mutalibov. Our party will fight for justice,” said Rahmatullo Zoyirov in a statement published on his Facebook page.

Gulnora RAVSHAN