I have been hearing for some time that the suspect in the case of the attempted assassination of Obid-kori Nazarov, the Muslim cleric living in exile in Sweden, was a Russian who escaped from Sweden back to Russia via the Baltics, and/or Uzbeks who also managed to escape. I've heard different permutations of the story but not too much detail. I have written about the case in the past.
Now this week comes the news from RFE/RL and uznews.net that a Swedish court has acquitted two Uzbek suspects, Bakhodyr Pulatov and Nodira Aminova, and they are free to leave Sweden if they wish. Apparently, while the suspects admitted that they told this third person, a Russian and Uzbek citizen, Yury Zhukovsky, where Nazarov could be located, they did this in innocence, i.e. as anyone in a community might do if asked about a public figure.
Hmm, that doesn't convince me, and I've finding some very odd things about the discrepancies between the way RFE/RL is covering this and uznews.net.
It's widely believed that the Uzbek secret police (the MNB) are behind this, and I would tend to agree, but there is no proof, and never would be for things like that. Now it seems the case has ground to a halt, despite the prosecutor's assertions that it was likely the Uzbek secret police.
RFE/RL's correspondent Rikard Jozwiak reports:
However, Nazarov's son, Dovudkhon Nazarov, told RFE/RL by phone that Nazarov's relatives will appeal the court's verdict.
"We are planning to complain against this court decision," he said. "There is no doubt that we are not fully satisfied with the decision. And we want to push the case to higher courts."
But oddly, Jozwiak says that Nazarov "supported the secular opposition" -- which doesn't track with everything we've read from other sources, including uznews.net which has been courageous enough to talk about the critique the secular opposition has of the Muslim clerics who they fear would take away their rights if they came to power. I'm not seeing it.
Further, says Nazarov constituted some sort of rival to President Islam Karimov -- "He was seen in some circles as a potential rival to Uzbek President Islam Karimov". Really? A Muslim cleric? Well, maybe in "some circles" -- but where are they today? I could see that he might be popular, or was popular before he fled into emigration, and might have his following in some regions or towns and some social strata. But it's quite a stretch to say in a post-Soviet country that is fairly secularized as Uzbekistan is that a religious leader could attract enough of a popular following to become president -- assuming there were free conditions. Again, that doesn't track either.
In any event, what's more odd about Rikard Jozwiak's report is what he leaves out -- which we get from uznews.net. And they don't just speculate -- as emigre publications are always accused of doing -- they got the verdict from the prosecutor's office and read it, and summarize it:
The court admitted that the suspects, Pulatov and Aminova, gave confusing and contradicting evidence. For example, they did not manage to explain what brought them from the southern Swedish town of Malmo, where they lived, to the northern town of Stromsund. Their explanation that they got lost and therefore travelled a thousand kilometres to Stromsund where Nazarov lived was not cogent.
I'll say. Truly, why were they 1,000 miles away and just happen to be in this community and just happened to know where Nazarov was?! It's a quiet Swedish town.
There's more:
According to the prosecutor’s office, the attempt on Nazarov’s life was organised by the National Security Service (SNB) of Uzbekistan. A man who shot at the imam is Yuriy Zhukovskiy, a citizen of Uzbekistan and Russia. He was in Stromsund on the day of attempted murder.
The detained couple assisted Zhukovskiy by renting a car for him, booking a hotel room and a flat. After shooting at the imam, Zhukovskiy visited the married couple in Malmo, and then moved to another hotel and left for Russia shortly.
The prosecutor’s office paid attention to big amounts of money that had been transferred to the couple’s accounts in Malmo. Nodira Aminova first received $11,000, then $25,000, but after the attempt on of the imam’s life, she received another $43,000.
I suppose there are valid alibis for each of these things, as well as phone calls to Russia also mentioned but...what would they be? This sure sounds pretty suspicious!
"Trial truths" aren't the same as the truths that people know intuitively and instinctively. You have to provide evidence in court and you have to prove something "beyond a reasonable doubt" -- and not everything that seems very suspicious like a phone call or a wire transfer can be proven as such.
Hopefully, with the appeal more will come out.
Meanwhile, sadly, the son described his father's condition as "hopeless."
I wonder if we are seeing these acquittals because Sweden is feeling pressured by the Uzbek government. On the one hand, the prosecutor seems to freely discuss the suspicion that it is the Uzbek security agency behind this; on the other hand, with two suspects that certainly seem to have a lot of relevant clues and a relationship to the alleged murderer being acquitted, maybe Sweden feels they need to get rid of this case for some reason.
