RF embassy in Tajikistan follows situatn with Rus citizens arrest.

8/7 Tass 326

DUSHANBE, July 8 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian embassy in Tajikistan
follows the situation with the arrest of six Russian citizens on charges
of participation in an anti-government plot of former field commanders of
the armed Tajik opposition, Vladimir Vaniyev, the minister-counsellor of
the Russian diplomatic mission, told Itar-Tass on Thursday. He commented
on the closed-door trial in Dushanbe of 46 persons charged with
participation in an armed criminal group, among them six Russian citizens
who come from the North Caucasus. All of them were detained in July of
last year during a large-scale operation of the Tajik security services in
the Tavildara district near the Pamirs.
"The Russian consulate-general got in touch with the Tajik law
enforcement bodies right from the moment of the Russian citizens'
detention and was giving the necessary consultations to the arrested
compatriots and their relatives throughout the investigation," he said. At
the same time he declined comment on the very events and the personalities
of the defendants while no sentences were passed on them.
The trial of the participants in the Tavildara anti-government group
is held behind closed doors on the premises of the investigation ward of
Tajikistan's national security committee. Itar-Tass learned from
trustworthy sources that only one of the six Russian citizens was charged
under several articles of the Criminal Code of Tajikistan, including
immediate participation in combat operations against the government
forces, hostage taking and possession of arms. The other five arrested
Russian citizens are charged only with membership in a criminal group.
According to sources in Tajikistan's Supreme Court the trial of
participants in the anti-government group is going to be prolonged. Only
four defendants, among them two sons of "the main Tavildara plotter",
Mirzo Zieev, have been convicted so far. Zieev's sons got 28 and 30 years
of deprivation of freedom. Mirzo Zieev, the ex-minister of emergency
situations in the years of the civil war in Tajikistan (1992-1997), who
led the armed units of the Islamic opposition, was killed, just as 20 of
his supporters, during armed resistance to government forces in the summer
of last year.
-0-saf/mil