Senior Tajik Drug Control Officers Detained On Bribe Allegations

DUSHANBE -- Two top officials at Tajikistan's State Agency for Drugs Control (OGMM) have been detained on suspicion of bribe-taking.

The Tajik anticorruption agency said on March 30 that chief of the OGMM's investigative department, Saidmuhtor Bekov, and chief of the OGMM's operative-search directorate, Erghash Malikov, are suspected in accepting tens of thousands of dollars in exchange of dropping charges against a suspect.

The announcement came two weeks after President Emomali Rahmon had appointed his eldest son, Rustam Emomali, 27, to head the Central Asian nation's anticorruption agency.

The agency said on March 30 that its new leadership had requested from all of its officers to pass a review to check the level of professionalism of all the employees.

A commission has been establish to conduct the review process.