Responsible for the tragedy during the destruction of Sardoba reservoir, 29 defendants were found guilty by the verdict of the City Criminal Court of Tashkent. Among them was an 86-year-old employee of the Planning Department for promising projects of UzGip LLC. He was fined 68 million sums ($6,180).
The convicts were charged under the following Articles: 167 (“Theft by misappropriation or embezzlement”), 209 (“Official forgery”), 243 (“Legalization of proceeds from crime”) and 258 (“Violation of safety rules for mining, construction or explosive work”) of the Criminal Code.
Most of them held mid-level positions in design and water management organizations. The situation was repeated when in May 2021 the Judicial Collegium of the Supreme Court for Criminal Cases sentenced 17 officials of the same rank. They were defendants in the case of a dam breach that caused casualties and numerous destruction in Syrdarya region. The water also flooded the border regions of Kazakhstan.
The current First Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Achilbay Ramatov, who is responsible for the general contract for the construction of the dam of Sardoba reservoir, wasn’t punished and even received a promotion, leaving the post of Minister of Transport. Senator Abdugani Sanginov, who headed the contractor company “Uzsuvenergo”, now heads the company “Uzbekhydroenergo”. According to the results of the investigation, their activities are not subject to liability.
As of January 1, 2017, the cost of building Sardoba reservoir amounted to almost 1 trillion 307 billion sums ($404.4 million at the exchange rate of the Central Bank as of January 1, 2017).
On the day of the disaster, May 1, the press service of the Presidential Administration hastened to report that ‘after heavy rain and stormy wind, on the morning of May 1, there was a partial collapse of the dam of Sardoba reservoir’. Then the investigators of the State Security Service of Uzbekistan, conducting a criminal case on the fact of a man-made disaster, carefully interrogated those called in for questioning about the fish. In particular, they asked questions about catfish, which were bred in the reservoir. At the request of the State Security Service, employees of the Institute of Zoology under the Academy of Sciences also studied the presence of biodamages at the dam of Sardoba reservoir. “Such a zeal of the security forces in the development of exotic versions was probably due to the goal of covering up high-ranking officials. As a result, there are many perpetrators, but the people treat the verdicts with great distrust,” the ACCA expert notes.
