One site and five bloggers decide to end their activities in Kashkadarya

“In the court, I repeatedly asked the staff of Traffic Safety Department to show them the footage recorded on the body camera, where we were rude, quarreled, and mistreated. Because when these images were presented, my innocence would be clearly proven. However, this request was denied,” Umid Karimov said.

I just said “parked car” to the DIA officers who were checking the car standing on the roadside. Because of these words, I was arrested. I asked them to give me a lawyer in court or to let me inform a lawyer I know. However, the judge did not satisfy my request. I didn’t hit the DIA officer, I didn’t insult. But I was imprisoned for 5 days. In court, my words were simply ignored. I was sentenced based on the false testimony of the DIA officers. After serving the sentence imposed by the court, I decided to end my career”.

In an interview with Kun.uz, the bloggers said that this is not a publicity stunt, they are worried about the future of themselves and their loved ones, and that’s why they are stopping blogging.

After Maksud Muzaffarov and Umid Karimov announced that they would no longer be bloggers, several other bloggers agreed with them and wrote that they would not continue their activities.

“Those imprisoned for 5 days are my close friends. I took them as a sign of stifling the freedom of speech that they were arrested in one day for groundless reasons, their case was heard in court on the same day, and they were sentenced to 5-day imprisonment. Earlier, I was also harassed by anonymous profiles, they said “you are not a friend of Uzbeks”, I also wrote about this on my channel. Who will guarantee that I will walk safely tomorrow? If this happened to me, my mother would not be able to bear it, I don’t want to become my mother’s killer. That’s why I don’t want to blog anymore. I want to live among ordinary people,” Azizbek Yazdurdiyev said.

“I was not among those sentenced to administrative imprisonment. But after the injustice done to them in court, I felt in danger. It is clear that I will end up playing with fire in a society where the courts act blindly in matters affecting the lives of citizens. Therefore, I preferred to stop on time. I don’t really think about going back to blogging someday. I want to enjoy a quiet life. I don’t want to be in fear for my life,” Otabek Artikov noted.

“I’ve been thinking about going abroad for a long time, so I moved. We thought that the rest of the team would manage our channel, but since several bloggers were arrested without any evidence, only on the false testimony of DIA officers, I did not want to put the team at risk.

I haven’t been able to talk to all my blogger friends since I’ve been away. However, I would like them to respect the fact that most of them have a different source of income and blogging is a hobby. In addition, Maksud Muzaffarov was continuing his activity mainly due to the justice in the courts, that is, he worked while proving in court the unjust fines imposed by employees of the Traffic Safety Department. Arresting him without any evidence, involving his father in the case, probably had a strong impact,” Uroljon Kamolov said.