The City Criminal Court of Termez found blogger Otabek Sattoriy guilty under articles 40 (“Libel”), 41 (“Insult”) and 202-2 (“Dissemination of false information”) of the Administrative Code. He was fined $ 940.
The Prosecutor General’s Office reported that the reason for this punishment was the spread of false information on social networks in January, consisting of “insults and slander” against employees of the coal warehouse “Denau” and the zoo of Termez about embezzlement and “other illegal actions”. At the same time, lawyers didn’t want to comment on the violations during detention and closed court hearings, implying the blogger’s status as a particularly dangerous criminal. The question about the unhurried filing of the lawsuit by the “victims” of Sattoriy hung in midair.
The special attention of the security officials to the blogger is evidenced by the fact that the criminal case was initiated not by the city administration, but by the regional investigation department under the Internal Affairs Directorate.
Earlier, the ACCA wrote that since the arrest on January 29, the investigators, after three days of their work, decided to bring charges against Sattoriy under the second part of article 165 “Extortion” of the Criminal Code, which entails imprisonment for a term of 10 to 15 years. At the beginning of the investigation, a lighter punishment was considered – restriction of freedom up to 5 years or imprisonment for the same period.
The supervisory authority explained that appeals to the actions of Sattoriy on seven facts were considered and “the investigation clarifies the circumstances of the case”. At the same time, “when studying the legality of the initiation of a criminal case, no facts of violation of the law by the investigation department of the regional police department were revealed.”
Initially, the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan charged Sattoriy with extortion of cash and a mobile phone from unknown people.
Otabek became the first accused for disseminating false information, which provides for a different punishment after the introduction of amendments to the legislation on December 26, 2020.
At first, the ACCA assumed that the changes would not immediately turn into repression for journalism and civil society. It was easy to justify the blogger, but the authorities made it clear by the punishment of the regional blogger the reality of the persecution of all media and the blogosphere of the country for unwanted network activity.
Leave feedback about this