The Namangan City Court on Criminal Cases on March 28th issued a verdict against a 27-year-old man, who was found guilty of insulting the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev on social media and illegal border crossing.
The resident of Namangan, D. T., was detained on December 4, 2023, upon his return from Iran and was charged under Article 158 Part 3 (public insult or slander against the President of Uzbekistan, as well as using print media, telecommunications networks, or the internet) and point "b" of Article 223 Part 2 (illegal border crossing or illegal entry into Uzbekistan by prior agreement of a group of persons) of the Criminal Code. The punishment for the first article includes corrective labor for up to 3 years or imprisonment for 2 to 5 years or up to 5 years of imprisonment, and for the second article - imprisonment from 5 to 10 years.
According to the case materials, in September 2016, he traveled to Iran without obtaining an exit sticker in his passport (since January 1, 2019, the issuance of stickers for temporary travel abroad was discontinued in Uzbekistan, and biometric passports were introduced).
As stated in the court's decision, the accused left a defamatory comment on Facebook under a publication discussing the planned participation of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in the Victory Parade in Moscow on May 9, 2023.
- Additionally, from the account "Muhammad Sanjar," the man posted a photo on Facebook with the President, where he was performing Umrah pilgrimage, with a comment that was deemed offensive by the expertise.
The defendant partially admitted his guilt under Article 158 Part 3 but disagreed with the accusation of illegal border crossing by prior agreement of a group of persons. He claimed that he traveled abroad on his own to enroll in an Iranian university since he failed the entrance exam at the Tashkent University of Information Technologies. He studied in Iran for four years and obtained a diploma from Al-Mustafa International University.
D. T. learned that he was wanted in 2022. On December 3, 2023, he flew to Tashkent from Tehran.
The man emphasized that he is not a member of any religious organization.
The case materials also include other comments related to the trials of bloggers Olimjon Khaidarov and Abdukodir Muminov.
The court reclassified the accusation under point "b" of Article 223 Part 2 of the Criminal Code to Part 1 of Article 223 of the Criminal Code (border crossing, entry into Uzbekistan, or crossing the border in violation of the established procedure / punishable by a fine of 200 to 400 BRV or imprisonment for 3 to 5 years or up to 5 years of imprisonment).
The court found the man guilty of the aforementioned article and Part 3 of Article 158 of the Criminal Code (public insult or slander against the President of Uzbekistan) and sentenced him to 5 years of imprisonment in a penal colony. His Redmi Note 11 phone was confiscated in favor of the state.
In October, the court sentenced a 19-year-old resident of the Kattakurgan district of the Samarkand region to 2 years and 6 months of imprisonment for an offensive comment about the President on Instagram. The judge also ordered to block the profile of the defendant. At that time, examined about 10 court decisions on this article, where the defendants received restrictions on freedom, and found out that it was the first court decision in many months on a prison term for insulting the President.
In March 2021, the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan was supplemented with a provision establishing responsibility for public insult or slander against the President using telecommunications networks or the internet.
