Soviet Colonel Held in Slaying of Official
MOSCOW — A Soviet militia colonel has been arrested on the suspicion that he hired killers to murder an official in the Central Asian republic of Turkmenia, the Communist Party daily Pravda reported on Monday.
Halima Rozibayeva, a Communist Party administrator in the Chardzhou district of the republic, had campaigned against bribery and contributed to the dismissal of 63 corrupt police officers this year before she was killed by a gang that came to her house, Pravda said.
The gang apparently had been hired by Col. K. Soltanov, who was outraged when Rozibayeva said he was unsuitable for promotion and accused his wife, a district prosecutor, of bribe-taking, it said.
Pravda did not make clear exactly how Rozibayeva was killed.
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