Source: Interpol
By Exec-Edge
The Uzbek government’s ongoing investigation into the attempted assassination of former presidential press secretary Komil Allamjonov has been expanded 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 in connection with the late October attempt on Allamjonov’s life near his home in Tashkent. The government has asked Interpol for help in tracking down the suspects.
Uzbekistan officials say the suspects were promised $1.5 million from an unknown source to kill Allamjonov and Dmitry Li, the head of the National Agency for Prospective Projects of Uzbekistan, which is responsible for regulating cryptocurrencies, 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 passed through a checkpoint on the border between the two countries.
Rasaev is known to international law enforcement officials. In 2021 he was together with seven other men arrested in Turkey on suspicion of plotting attacks against critics of the Chechen leadership. Officials found weapons and ammunition during raids on two apartments in Turkey.
This is reported by the Turkish National Intelligence Service at the timeRasaev acted on the orders of Chechen politicians and Chechen boxer Kazbek Dukuzov, who linked to the murder of an American journalist Paul Klebnikov. Although questioned the Turkish authorities have not convicted Rasaev.
Allamjonov was driven home in the early hours of October 26, when two men were on a motorcycle dismissed several shots fired into the vehicle he was driving. Neither Allamjonov nor the driver were injured. Several suspects were quickly arrested, but one, linked to a deceased Uzbek ambassador to South Korea, fled to Seoulwhere he was eventually captured and returned to Uzbekistan. In the aftermath of the attack, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev dismissed several top government security officials, including the head of the State Security Service Abdusalom Azizov, and his deputy Otabek Umarovthe president’s son-in-law.
Allamjonov left political office in September. During his reign, he was part of Mirziyoyev’s efforts to reform the former Soviet republic into a freer, Western-oriented republic. democracy. He helped lead the 2023 constitutional reform, which enshrined personal freedoms in the country for the first time. He unblocked citizens’ access to external and independent news sources and urged Uzbek journalists to hold government officials accountable. He worked closely on reform efforts with Saida Mirziyoyev, the president’s eldest daughter and No. 2 in the government.
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