HATED BY DUSHANBE, TAJIK POLITICIAN REMAINS IN MOSCOW

MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has refused to extradite to Tajikistan leader of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan Mukhamadruzi Iskandarov, accused by the authorities of banditry and terrorism, lawyer Anna Stavitskaya for Iskandarov has said on Thursday.

To her, the leader of the political party of Tajikistan was detained in Moscow on December 9, 2004 by the law-enforcement agencies on request from the Prosecutor General's Office of Tajikistan.

He was detained on the eve of the parliamentary elections, held in Tajikistan in February 2005. On December 18, 2004 re-election of the leader of the Democratic Party of Tajikistan was to be held.

Iskandarov was released from the pre-trial detention center on April 3, 2005, spending there about three months.

Notwithstanding his being in the pre-trial detention center in Moscow, on December 18 he was re-elected as the party leader.

The Prosecutor General's Office of Tajikistan accuses Iskandarov on five articles of the republic's Criminal Code, such as banditry, terrorism and unlawful use of bodyguards.