Chief of the news publication Taftish.uz (Elita-Media LLC) Gairat Aberaev was arrested in absentia, the press service of the prosecutor's office of Bukhara province.
Shortly after publication, the message on the Telegram channel of the prosecutor's office disappeared. The agency explained said that it was as a technical malfunction and stated that the information would be published again in the near future.
According to the report, a criminal case against Aberaev was opened by Shafirkan branch of the Department for Combating Economic Crimes under the General Prosecutor's Office.
Accusation
The prosecutor's office claims that Gairat Aberaev deceived citizens living in Shafirkan district, received a large sums of money for solving their problems through the Taftish.uz channel on social networks and spent it for personal purposes.
In particular, in October 2020, Aberaev allegedly promised to help the head of the farm in Kanimekh district to help with the return of 1,400 hectares of pasture land to the farm, which were transferred to the balance of the district cooperative for karakul farming. For this he allegedly took $5,000 and spent it on his personal needs.
He is also suspected of having spent 22 thousand dollars on his own needs, taken from citizen K. Kh. for help in returning 1,800 hectares of pastures confiscated to the reserve for the district mayor’s office.
According to the prosecutor's office, Aberaev also promised the man's father, who was in custody on charges of Causing intentional bodily harm of moderate gravity (Article 105 of the Criminal Code), to get him out of prison. It is reported that he received $5,000 for this, although during the appeal hearing the defendant was released from custody after reconciliation with the victim.
In April 2022, Aberaev, allegedly, received $800 from citizen A. Kh. for a promise to help transfer his younger brother, who served in the National Guard department for Andijan province, to Bukhara province.
He is also suspected of taking $500 from Zh.U. in the spring of 2021, promising to return the money within 10-15 days, but did not return the money.
“Aberaev deceived citizens, embezzled a total of 33.3 thousand dollars,” the prosecutor’s office said.
On November 6, a criminal case was opened against him, he was charged under Fraud committed repeatedly or by a dangerous repeat offender charge, Fraud on an especially large scale charge, Attempt to give a bribe repeatedly, by a dangerous repeat offender or by a person who has previously committed crimes in the form of taking a bribe or mediation in bribery charges of the Criminal Code. The Peshkun district police department is conducting an investigation.
By a court decision, Gairat Aberaev was taken into custody in absentia. If within 10 days from the date of the announcement of the preventive measure he fails to voluntarily show up before law enforcement agencies, he will be put on the wanted list.
Gairat Aberaev last published a post on his Facebook page on November 4. Earlier, on October 20, he wrote that he had completely left Taftish.uz.
“Now I work independently on social networks. I have not yet thought about whether I will work in any media in the future. On October 3, Ulmas Tulaev was appointed head of this news agency,” he said then.
According to the USRPO, Taftish.uz was created in September 2019. At the moment, its director is Shokhrukh Nusratov, and its founder is Umida Eshmurodova.
