In Uzbekistan, new law deprived special services and prosecutors of privileges

The President Mirziyoev delivered a blow on the image of special services and the Prosecutor’s office by signing the law amending a number of legislative acts “in connection with the improvement of the activities of individual state bodies”. Now, in order to bring the prosecutors and the State Security Service to administrative responsibility, the consent of the senior manager is not required. The bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Guard have the right to this.

According to the new law, the rule on bringing administrative bodies of the State Security Service to administrative responsibility is excluded from the article 37 of the law “On the State Security Service” only with the consent of the chairman of the State Security Service, heads of Departments in Karakalpakstan, regions and Tashkent.

In the article 49 (inviolability of an employee of the Prosecutor’s office) of the law “On the Prosecutor’s office”, the clause stating that a higher prosecutor resolves the issue of responsibility of the prosecutor for administrative offenses was deleted.

“Changes in the legislation are not critical for the State Security Service and Prosecutor’s office. They still have great potential, and it is unlikely, for example, that an ordinary officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs patrol service will prosecute an intelligence officer or a person with a prosecutor’s card. The adoption of the law is populist in nature for the population, who dislike the agencies, but will not affect their work in any way,” an expert, a former law enforcement official, commented on the news for ACCA.