Tashkent’s Uchtepa district criminal court reviewed the administrative case against a 32-year-old man who spat on the face of a female passenger on a bus Tuesday.
According to the case, the incident occurred on November 11 on bus #146, heading towards Abu Sahiy market in the Uchtepa District. The victim was returning home from work with her mother. She took off her jumper because of the heat in the cabin and put it back on before getting off at her stop. Bakhtiyorjon Ortikov, who was sitting opposite, insulted her by shouting "is this a place to change clothes?", spat in her face and violated public order, the court's ruling said.
The offender partially pleaded guilty, justifying his actions by the fact that "the girl took off her outerwear and attracted the attention of all the passengers," which, according to him, is why he made a remark to her. The man denied that he had spat in her face intentionally, suggesting that “the spit could have come out accidentally because he was speaking quickly.”
The defendant expressed regret for what happened, promised to apologize to the victim, and asked for a more lenient sentence.
In a footage that went viral on social media, however, the man can be seen arguing with the victim’s mother:
“What is this? There are people here who are wearing hijabs, women, our mothers. Are you this man’s mother? Why didn’t you raise him properly? You have an ill-mannered child. You have an ill-mannered child! Get off at the next stop! You are also an ill-mannered person if you raised your child like that. They should spit in your face for raising him like that! Get out of here, hey! There are family people here,” he said.
The victim asked the court to impose the strictest punishment provided for by law on him.
