KHUJAND, April 20, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Five officers from the Sughd regional body empowered to combat organized crime have been arrested on suspicion of having been involved in corruption, according to the Sughd anticorruption directorate.

The source says two of them were arrested on April 19 following applications by two residents of the Istaravshan district who noted that the officers had received US$5,000 and US$7,000 in bribes respectively.

Criminal proceedings have been instituted against the corrupt officers under the provisions of three articles of Tajikistan’s Penal Code – Article 250 (extortion), Article 316 (misuse of powers) and Article 319 (bribery).

The same day, criminal proceedings were instituted against three other officers from the Sughd department for combating organized crime.  They face the same charges.

The source refrained from giving further details of the cases.