DUSHANBE -- Tajik authorities have transferred dozens of Afghan convicts to their home country to serve their sentences there, officials say.
Sayed Masoom Badakhsh of the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe told RFE/RL that 80 inmates were handed over to Afghan authorities at the Panji Poyon-Sher Khan Bandar border crossing on July 27.
“There are some Afghan citizen left in Tajik detention centers. After their cases are completed, they might be transferred” to Afghanistan as well, he said.
In May, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani had asked Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to help with the repatriation of inmates to Afghanistan and had received a positive answer.
Badakhsh said that most of them were convicted of drug smuggling and illegal border crossing.
Tajik diplomats said in July that eight citizens of Tajikistan detained in Afghanistan were returned to Tajikistan to serve their prison sentences or face trial. Most of them were facing extremism or terrorism charges.
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