DUSHANBE, February 13, Asia-Plus - A court in the Shohmansour district of Dushanbe is considering criminal proceedings instituted against a 30-year-old Aleksandr Kulyomin, junior researcher at the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of Tajikistan’s Academy of Sciences, who faces charge of stealing cultural objects, totaling 90 items.   

Ramazon Atoyev, an official with the Prosecutor-General’s Office, said in an interview with Asia-Plus that corresponding with Russian national Marsel Abelov by e-mail in April last year already, Kulyomin offered him purchase of jewelries, vases dated from the 3 ^rd -4 ^th centuries BC as well as silver and bronze coins dated from the times of Alexander the Great, the Kushans, Samanids and Temurids, totaling 90 items.   

The prosecutor said that Kulyomin had kept a part of the stolen cultural objects in his office in the Institute and another part in the house of his girl friend.  He was arrested last December and the State Committee for National Security investigated into this case, according to Atoyev.  

According to the prosecutor, if convicted, Kulyomin could face prison sentence between of between five and eight years with confiscation of personal property.