On August 19, the Mirabad District Court for Criminal Cases in Tashkent found school psychologist Azad Gasanov guilty. Since the end of April, numerous cases of his harassment of students in 3d and 5th grades have been considered at court hearings.
He committed a crime under part 1 Article 129 of the Criminal Code (“Indecent acts against a person under the age of 16”). For which he was sentenced to 2 years in prison in a colony-settlement, starting from April 26. This is the maximum punishment under current legislation, according to which such a crime does not pose great danger.
Gasanov may be released on parole or receive mitigation of the sanction. The information project Nemolchi.Uz fears that already on October 26, when a quarter of the term has passed, the pedophile may apply to the court for a change in the punishment and be released, as there have already been precedents.
ACCA has previously written about how the judiciary covers up pedophiles and rapists. Three men who persuaded a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Tashkent to have sex were given parole by the Uzbek Themis. Two of them served only six months. And the organizer of the actual child rape, a former physical education teacher, was released 12 months after his imprisonment. One of the convicts now works as a registrar at a medical center, where they serve children.
Nemolchi.uz together with UNICEF Uzbekistan proposed to toughen the responsibility for crimes against the sexual inviolability of minors. The proposed wording, depending on the circumstances, provides for imprisonment from eight to eleven years with life imprisonment of certain rights.
It is proposed to amend Articles 73 and 74 of the Criminal Code so that people who violate the sexual integrity of others cannot be released on parole or receive mitigation of punishment. These proposals have already been submitted to a working group under the Senate of Uzbekistan.
