DUSHANBE, April 7, Asia-Plus  -- On Saturday April 5, the board of the organization of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan (DPT) for Dushanbe sent a letter at the Russian incumbent President Vladimir Putin and President-elect Dmitry Medvedev asking not to be indifferent to destiny of its imprisoned leader Mahmadruzi Iskandarov.   

Tajik Democrats also asked human rights organizations and media not the indifferent to destiny of Mahmadruzi Iskandarov.   

The DPT organization for Dushanbe, in particular, noted that April 4 is a historic date for the DPT.  On April 4, 2005, Russian authorities freed Iskandarov.

We will recall that Iskandarov had been in prison since December 2004, when he was arrested on charges filed by the Tajik prosecutor’s office and Russian authorities acted on the Tajik government’s warrant in detaining him.  However, the Russian authorities refused to extradite Iskandarov to Tajikistan.  Instead, they freed him on April 4, 2005.         

But then, a little over a week later, Iskandarov disappeared.  DPT released a statement saying that he had disappeared in mysterious circumstances in Moscow late on 15 April, 2005.  On April 27, 2005, Tajik Prosecutor General Bobojon Bobokhonov told a press conference in Dushanbe that Iskandarov is at a pretrial detention facility and the investigation is under way.

On October 5, 2005, the Supreme Court of Tajikistan sentenced Mahmadruzi Iskandarov to 23 years in prison.  The sentence followed his conviction on charges of terrorism, the embezzlement of state funds, and the illegal storage of weapons.