Blogger Olimjon Khaydarov from Fergana was accused of violating the procedure for holding rallies and spreading false information, and was imposed a fine of 70 BCAs.
On December 13, in Fergana region, the Uzbekistan district court on criminal proceedings considered the case of administrative offense against blogger Olimjon Khaydarov, the press service of the Supreme Court reported.
Olimjon Haydarov was accused of committing an administrative offense under Article 201 (organization of meetings, rallies, street marches or demonstrations, violation of the order of holding) and Part 2 of Article 202-2 (spreading false information) of the Administrative Responsibility Code.
According to the court decision, the blogger was found to have committed the offenses mentioned in the above articles, and he was fined in the amount of 70 BCAs – 21 million soums in the order of applying administrative punishment for several offenses.
In an interview with Kun.uz correspondent, Olimjon Khaydarov said that he is dissatisfied with the court verdict and informed that he will file an appeal to the higher court.
In the past weeks, when the temperature cooled down, industrial enterprises were cut off from natural gas in order to give priority to households and social facilities. Khaydarov released a video on December 6 that “10,000 people” are unemployed as a result of the gas supply cutoff to enterprises in the Uzbekistan district, and workers of the “Albus” plaster factory, among them, are going out on streets asking for gas connection.
On December 13, the Fergana region DIA announced the following explanation regarding the court verdict.
“During the investigation of the case, on December 11 of this year, citizens A.T., D.N., U.T. and O.S. filed an application, in which on December 4-6 of this year, a citizen introduced himself as blogger-journalist Olimjon Khaydarov came to the plant’s territory where they work, and said that the plant would soon be closed due to the disconnection from the gas network, and as a result, the workers would be unemployed and no wages would be paid. Also, he told them to gather at the plant, organize a protest and make a video appeal about it, only then the plant could be connected to the gas network again and he could help in this regard.
In addition, it was found out from the case materials that O. Khaydarov taught how to videotape the demonstration, that some participants could not speak well enough, so others should speak, encouraged the demonstrators to speak aggressively. The blogger participated in the planning of this demonstration through re-dubs.
On December 6 of this year, although he did not participate directly, he spoke with a specialist in filming the demonstration, organized his work and distributed the finished video materials through his channel.
The above applicants requested to take legal action against the person who introduced himself as Olimjon Khaydarov, who urged them to break the law.
This case has been fully investigated, and the reasons given in the citizens’ application and O. Khaydarov’s actions have been confirmed.
Also, in the text distributed by Khaydarov, was said that the gas was not turned off in other plants, and officials were involved in this issue – the blogger spread false information. In particular, it was mentioned that the natural gas supply of the “Knauf” enterprise in the “Shorsuv” area was not cut off, and as the reason for this, they spread unfounded news about its management, but in reality, the gas enterprises confirmed that the “Knauf” enterprise has not been receiving natural gas since November 29 of this year. Through this action, he spread false information that threatens public order,” the DIA said in its statement.
In the earlier statement of the Department of Internal Affairs, the official response of “Khududgaz Fergana” stated that the “Albus” plant was arbitrarily reconnected after the gas was cut off. It was not disclosed whether measures were taken against the plant officials for this or not.
