Criminals planned the murder of Tajik opposition activist Umarali Kuvatov for three months.
The conspirators wanted to poison Kuvatov. However, when his health deteriorated, he became suspicious and went to the hospital. Then the killers used weapons – the politician was shot when he got outside.
According to Turkish media reports, the suspect poisoned Kuvatov at the joint dinner. The second perpetrator was at the time near the activist’s home, and the third one was the assassin himself.
All three of them are citizens of Tajikistan, two of them knew the victim. One suspect for a while, was in a shelter in the same Istanbul mosque, where Kuvatov lived with his family. The criminal, who introduced himself as a refugee from Tajikistan, was given shelter there in exchange for cleaning the temple. He used it to learn about the habits and weekdays of the politician, and to get to know him personally.
The 47-year-old political refugee Umarali Kuvatov was killed on the night of 5 to 6 March in Istanbul. He was buried there today.
