On January 26, the Almazar district criminal court announced the verdict against religious blogger Fozilkhodja Arifkhodjayev.
The court found him guilty under Article 244-1 of the Criminal Code (production, storage, distribution or demonstration of materials containing a threat to public safety and public order using the media or telecommunications networks, as well as the Internet) and sentenced him to 7 years and 6 months in prison.
It should be recalled that in July 2021, the Tashkent police department commented on the detention of blogger Fozilkhodja Arifkhodjayev, who promoted religious fundamentalism.
On June 26, visitors of the Tukhtaboy mosque located in the Almazar district appealed to the internal affairs bodies. Allegedly, Arifkhodjayev had caused a scandal, which violated public order and peace of mind of citizens.
On this fact, the Almazar district DIA conducted an inspection, the collected materials were transferred to the court for criminal cases of the Almazar district. The court found Arifkhodjayev guilty of committing offenses under Article 183 (petty hooliganism) of the Administrative Responsibility Code and sentenced him to 15 days of administrative arrest.
“During the inspection, law enforcement officers received information that Arifkhodjayev kept materials of a dubious religious nature on his mobile phone, which he showed to other people. When examining the contents stored in the memory of Arifkhodjayev’s phone, materials of a religious nature were found. To assess the nature of the content of these materials, the telephone was confiscated in accordance with the procedural order, a religious examination of materials of religious content was appointed,” the message said.
According to the conclusion of the experts of the Committee on Religious Affairs under the Cabinet of Ministers, some publications in the profile of the user “Fozilkhuja Arifkhodjayev” of the social network Facebook were recognized as propagating the ideas of religious fundamentalism. According to the current legislation, the import, preparation and distribution of such materials is prohibited.
In this regard, the Investigative Department of the Tashkent city DIA initiated a criminal case against Arifkhodjayev under Article 244-1 of the Criminal Code.
“Dear citizens. Until the end of the investigation and the adoption by the court of a lawful decision regarding F. Arifkhodjayev, we ask you not to trust the false information disseminated on social networks and instant messengers, and not to disseminate biased conclusions and information yourself that have not been confirmed by the competent authorities,” the police department said then.
