Source: Interpol
By Exec-Edge
The government of Uzbekistan’s ongoing investigation into the attempted murder of former presidential press secretary Komil Allamjonov has widened to include two Russian men with ties to Chechnya.
Last week, Uzbekistan charged Bislan Rasaev, 36, and Shamil Temrihanov, 31, with weapons, smuggling and illegal border crossing charges related to the late-October attempt on Allamjonov’s life near his home in Tashkent. The government has asked Interpol for assistance in locating the suspects.
Uzbekistan officials say that the suspects were promised $1.5 million from an unidentified source to kill Allamjonov and Dmitry Li, the head of Uzbekistan’s National Agency for Prospective Projects, which is responsible for regulating crypto currency, capital markets, insurance, e-commerce, lotteries and gambling activities.
Uzbek authorities said one of the suspects illegally crossed the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border and the other came through a checkpoint on the border between the two countries.
Rasaev is known to international law enforcement officials. In 2021, he and seven other men were arrested in Turkey on suspicions of plotting attacks against critics of Chechen leadership. In raids on two apartments in Turkey, officials found weapons and ammunition.
According to the Turkish National Intelligence Organization at the time, Rasaev was acting on orders of Chechen politicians and Chechen boxer Kazbek Dukuzov, who has been linked to the killing of American journalist Paul Klebnikov. Though questioned by Turkish authorities, there is no record of a conviction against Rasaev.
Allamjonov was being driven home in the early hours of October 26, when two men on a motorcycle fired several shots into the vehicle he was traveling in. Neither Allamjonov nor the driver were injured. Several suspects were soon apprehended, but one, who has ties to a late Uzbekistan ambassador South Korea, fled to Seoul, where he was eventually caught and returned to Uzbekistan. In the wake of the attack, Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev fired several top government security officials, including the Head of State Security Service Abdusalom Azizov, and his deputy Otabek Umarov, the president’s son-in-law.
Allamjonov left political office in September. During his time in government, he was part of Mirziyoyev’s efforts to reform the former Soviet republic into a freer, Western-facing democracy. He helped lead the 2023 constitutional reform that enshrined personal freedoms in the country for the first time. He unblocked citizens’ access to outside and independent news sources and urged Uzbekistan journalists to hold government officials to account. He worked closely on reform efforts with Saida Mirziyoyev, the president’s oldest daughter and No. 2 in the government.
Contact:
Editor@executives-edge.com
