The Mirabad District Criminal Court issue a ruling on the case against the Minister of Agriculture Aziz Voitov, the chief of Agricultural Services Agency Khusnuddin Karimov and other persons (62 people in total), the spokesman of the Supreme Court Aziz Abidov Monday.
Aziz Voitov was sacked in October 2023 and taken into custody in December. The trial began a year ago, on September 5, 2024. Despite calls to ensure openness of the hearings, including from the Anti-Corruption Agency, the court decided to the process behind closed doors.
According to the first instance court verdict, Aziz Voitov was found guilty under the Theft by misappropriation or embezzlement on an especially large scale charge and other charges of the Criminal Code.
Due to the full coverage of financial damage, he was sentenced to 3 years of correctional labor with the deduction of 30% of his monthly salary for the benefit of the state, a fine of 400 basic calculation units (164.8 million soums). He was also deprived of the right to hold leadership, official and financially responsible positions for a period of 3 years.
Khusnuddin Karimov, in accordance with the "relevant charges of the Criminal Code", was sentenced to 8.5 years of imprisonment with the deprivation of the right to hold official and financially responsible positions for 3 years.
As for the remaining 60 defendants, 9 of them were sentenced to imprisonment, and 51 to punishments not related to imprisonment.
The Supreme Court underscored that the parties who disagree with the decision of the court of first instance can file a complaint in through an appeal/cassation or protest.
Aziz Voitov served as Minister of Agriculture from August 2022 to October 2023. Prior to that, from March 2020, he was First Deputy Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade.
