DUSHANBE, July 10, 2013, Asia-Plus -- Officers from the Interior Ministry organized crime control department (UBOP) have arrested three alleged cybercriminals.

The Interior Ministry’s official website reports three residents of Dushanbe, Denis Rahimov, 29, Jamshed Jourayev, 34, and Parviz Nazarov, 32, were detained on July 9 on suspicion of cracking defense systems of the cellular communications companies Babilon-M and Tcell.

From May 2012 to October 2012, they reportedly illegally used 217 Sim cards of each of the companies and damage caused to Babilon-M and Tcell was estimated at 226,262 somoni and more than US$101,298 respectively.

Criminal proceedings have been instituted against alleged cybercriminals under the provisions of two articles of Tajikistan’s Penal Code: Article 298 – illegal information penetration and Article 299 – change of computer information; an investigation is under way.