Uzbekistan: the luxurious life of a crime boss behind bars

President of the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA, France) Nadezhda Atayeva reports on another example of the flourishing of corruption in the penitentiary system of Uzbekistan. In colony-settlement No. 31 (Zafarabad district, Jizzakh region), the administration provided comfortable conditions for serving the sentence for Mirzozhon Dzhumaev. He is the son of the late Nazim Dzhumaev, popularly nicknamed Executioner # 1, known in the criminal world as “Nazim of Bukhara”.

Sources of the association inform that Mirzozhon Dzhumaev does not go to forced labor, explaining this by bribing the head of the colony.

“Every day he has a feast thanks to his sister’s husband Davron, who is especially caring for Dzhumaev. In the video, his son-in-law appears in a teenage T-shirt with a picture of a surprised girl, ”says Nadezhda Atayeva.

Mirzozhon boasts a lot of the trust of his late father’s friends from the criminal world. He especially often mentions the names of Aziz Batukaev, Zhora Tashkentsky, and Badri Kutaissky, whom he greets on the video filmed in the colony.

The young crime boss was sentenced to imprisonment for drug trafficking after being arrested in 2014. At the very first interrogations, he testified against his father.

AHRCA has at its disposal documents confirming the testimony of Mirzozhon Dzhumaev against Nazim Dzhumaev. Addressing his statement to the chairman of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan, he writes: “I repent and confess to the crimes I committed before December 5, 2014. I am ready to compensate in full for the damage caused, which will be fully paid by my father, Nozim Narzievich Dzhumaev because all the crimes were committed by his order, that is, my father Nozim Narzievich Dzhumaev. Father received money from these crimes, and every time we got caught, father, with the help of his acquaintances, the National Security Service officers, quickly rescued us. ” (The statement is dated December 24, 2014, when Rustam Inoyatov was the chairman of the NSS).

And if it were not for the letter of Nazim Bukharsky, written by him with his hand before his death, then the statement of Mirzozhon Dzhumaev could raise doubts. However, in his suicide letter, Executioner No. 1 lists all the efforts aimed at educating his son, and disappointingly describes how his son slandered him during the investigation, which is why he has to die behind bars.

Mirzozhon Dzhumaev is to be released early in the coming days, and then he promises to deal with everyone who does not pay a share of the profits of the enterprises controlled by his father.

The information received about corruption crimes in the institutions of the penitentiary system indicates facts that confirm the association’s conviction that the reforms announced by Shavkat Mirziyoyev did not affect the penal system.

“How else can you explain that prisoners who are confident in complete impunity, such as Mirzozhon Dzhumaev, arrange a feast during the working day when other half-starved convicts do the hardest work and can only afford a piece of bread and a glass of cold water?” asks Nadezhda Atayeva.

In her opinion, the behavior of a prisoner on many grounds is qualified in the current legislation under the articles “Extortion” and “Giving a bribe to an official”.

His father had a reputation as a torture master. By order of high-ranking officers from the security forces, Nazim Dzhumaev dealt with the imprisoned entrepreneurs on the instructions of competitors. In addition, he severely tortured prisoners convicted for their religious views and opponents of the Karimov regime.