Russia has detained two suspects in the kidnapping and murder of Orienbank deputy head Shukhrat Ismatulloev, who is close to the country’s president Imomali Rahmon. This was reported by the Tajik service of Radio Liberty (Radio Ozodi).
Information about the detention of two Tajik citizens suspected of kidnapping and murdering a banker was confirmed by Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev. However, he did not name the names of those detained.
According to Radio Ozodi, one of the Tajiks detained in the Russian Federation may be Dilshod Saidmurodov, the main suspect in organizing the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Ismatulloev. The publication believes that he will be extradited to Tajikistan in the near future.
The press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan previously announced that the head of the department, Ramazon Rakhimzoda, would meet with his Russian counterpart to discuss the detention of Saidmurodov.
Saidmurodov is a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan. Earlier, the Tajik authorities reported that immediately after the kidnapping and murder of the banker, he fled to Russia.
The body of Shukhrat Ismatulloev was found on August 15 in the city of Panjakent, and the search for him lasted almost two months.
In early August, one of the members of the criminal group that kidnapped and killed Ismatulloev, 28-year-old Bakhtovar Safarov, was detained in Turkey. He, as noted in the country’s Prosecutor General’s Office, already had a criminal record for drug trafficking.
In early July, the department reported the arrest of five suspects in the kidnapping and murder of Ismatulloev. The banker was kidnapped by a criminal group created by Dilshod Saidmurodov. According to investigators, Saidmurodov developed a plan to kidnap the banker back in March 2022 and for this purpose created an armed organized criminal group of more than 10 people.
For certain reasons, Ismatulloev’s kidnapping did not take place last year. A year later, on June 23, Saidmurodov, together with Rustam Ashurov, Shokhrukh Khudzhaev, Akbar Akhmedov and other members of the organized crime group, forcibly put Ismatulloev into a Hyundai Sonata car with tinted windows and drove away in the direction of the village of Shodob-1, located in the village council of Chorbog, Varzob district.
“These persons in one of the houses of the indicated village, until 3 o’clock on June 24, tortured Ismatulloev with the use of physical force, a stun gun, an auto-hair dryer and other means and subsequently killed him. kilometer of the Dushanbe-Chanak highway,” the Prosecutor General’s Office of Tajikistan said in a statement.
On the same day, according to the department, Saidmurodov and Akhmedov fled to Russia, while Khudzhaev and Ashurov fled to Turkey. Five days later, Ashurov ended up at the Chisinau airport, where he opened fire, killing two officers and wounding a passenger. During the arrest, Ashurov received numerous bullet wounds, from which he later died.
49-year-old Shukhrat Ismatulloev is the brother of Dilshod Ismatullozoda, ex-CEO of Tajik Air. He is one of the close people of Hasan Asadullozoda, chairman of Orienbank and brother-in-law of the country’s President Emomali Rahmon. Ismatulloev held the position of first deputy chairman of Orienbank for many years and, according to informed sources, actually led it.
