DUSHANBE, December 20, 2013, Asia-Plus – Tajikistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) doubts the authenticity of information about the stolen German cars reportedly owned by Tajik elite.

The Tajik MFA information department reports the ministry is currently checking the authenticity of a report about 200 stolen German cars released by Germany’s Bild newspaper on December 19.

We will recall that AFP reports that media and officials in Berlin said on Thursday that around 200 cars stolen in Germany have been tracked down in Tajikistan, where most are now driven by family and friends of President Emomali Rahmon.

AFP quoted Bild newspaper as reporting that the case of the German-registered cars, including 93 BMWs located via GPS, has caused friction between Germany and Tajikistan.

According to AFP , a German foreign ministry spokeswoman did not confirm the Bild report that former foreign minister Guido Westerwelle had called in the Tajik ambassador over the case this year.  However, she reportedly told AFP that “there have been talks with the Tajik side on cooperation in fighting organized crime.”

The cars were located by the "Westwind" task force of German and Lithuanian investigators, mostly using the vehicles'' GPS systems, Berlin city justice department spokeswoman Lisa Jani was cited as saying.

When Tajik authorities failed to respond to requests to help in the investigation, Berlin''s justice minister Thomas Heilmann wrote to Germany''s then-foreign minister Westerwelle, she told AFP .

“Most of the vehicles are in the possession of people who have business or family ties with the family of the Tajik president,” Heilmann wrote to the foreign minister, said Jani.

Tajikistan has to date not replied to the request for legal assistance or taken steps to return the cars, she added.

Tajikistan’s Ambassador to Germany, Imomiddin Sattorov, has reportedly denied that information as absolutely baseless.

This report has a provocative character and is aimed at deteriorating relations between the two countries, Ambassador Sattorov told Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service.  “If these cars were located via GPS, why they were not located before entering Tajikistan? In this case, German law enforcement authorities could share information with Tajikistan and the Tajik authorities would not allow registration of those cars,” Tajik diplomat was quoted as saying.