DUSHANBE, September 2, 2011, Asia-Plus -- A Tajik company has won a case against a bank partly owned by President Emomali Rahmon''s brother-in-law, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports.

The northern Sughd province''s economic court ordered on August 30 that the director of the Oriyon Bank -- which is co-owned by Hasan Sadulloyev, Rahmon''s brother-in-law -- pay the equivalent of $800,000 to the Bakht wheat company for grain purchased more than a decade ago, Bakht head Nouriddin Mahkamov told RFE/RL.

The Bakht company has been seeking the money for a wheat delivery made to the Qayroqqum flour plant in 1998.

Oriyon Bank took control of Qayroqqum in 2003, promising to pay off the plant''s debts.  Bakht filed a claim for the debt but Oriyon then said it was not obligated to repay that debt.  Oriyon officials claimed the original owners of the flour plant had embezzled a large amount of money before the bank acquired the company.

The Bakht company pointed to a 2003 court decision ordering Oriyon to repay the money to Bakht. Oriyon took the case to court earlier this year and had the verdict overturned.

Bakht appealed to a Dushanbe court, which sent the case back to the Sughd economic court for review.