DUSHANBE, February 21, 2013, Asia-Plus – Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service has posted an audio track of interview with Tajik journalist and activist Bakhtiyor Sattori, who was stabbed in Moscow overnight between February 19 and 20.

Bakhtiyor Sattori told RFE/RL in a telephone interview on February 20 that an unknown assailant attacked him near his apartment.

Sattori said he was stabbed in the stomach and face on February 19.

He said the attacker''s face was covered but he described the man''s eyes as looking “Central Asian.”

Sattori noted he has no idea who is behind the attack.  “I do not want many speculations around this incident.  I have no idea who is behind this attack.”

Meanwhile, Russian human rights activists Nikolai Nikolayev has told Asia-Plus that he also talked to Bakhtiyor Sattori and according to him, there were two assailants.  He refrained from giving further details.  Nikolayev says the attack was not accidental.  “The assailants made sure that it is he and only after that they inflicted stab wounds on him,” said Nikolayev.  “If they wanted to kill they would kill him.”   

Sattori, 49, worked at the Tajik Embassy in Moscow before becoming the press secretary of the Tajik Migration Service''s representative board in Moscow.

After losing his job last year, Sattori became an active member of an organization called the Training Club of Tajikistan''s Future Government, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service said.