DUSHANBE, August 18, 2011, Asia-Plus - Lawyers of the Asia-Plus weekly newspaper filed their claim to the Prosecutor General’s Office bringing accusations against Valikhon Mulloev, Head of the Counter Human Trafficking Department of the Tajik Ministry of Interior’s Organized Crime Control Department (OCCD), who threatened to destroy them.

Lawyers of the newspaper Shukhrat Kudratov and Abdurakhmon Sharipov claim that V.Mulloev threatened them on August 17th when they were waiting for the start of a trial in lawsuit brought by the former head of the OCCD Anvar Tagoimurodov against Asia-Plus newspaper which was about to begin at the Firdavsi Regional Court.

“Valikhon Murodov represents A.Tagoimurodov in court. We arrived to the court and as we were waiting for the judge he told us: “You are enemies of the police and I would happily shoot you.” Then he added: “I will destroy you with all possible ways and methods.” He repeated this for several times, lawyers have said. – And he told this with many eyewitnesses standing around. There were representatives of many media sources and various international legal organizations which observe this case.

This morning lawyers filed their claim to the Prosecutor General’s Office asking to find Mulloev’s threats real since he has access to weapon and ask to undertake related measures.