Reports surfaced on social networks about the disappearance of the blogger Abduqodir Muminov yesterday on February 8, which said that unknown people opened his apartment with their key and seized his flashes, recorders and laptop.
The Tashkent police department later reported that law enforcement agencies had detained Abduqodir Muminov on suspicion of fraud and extortion.
According to the department, citizen E.Z. filed a complaint with the police department and asked to take legal action against Abduqodir Muminov. In October 2021, the blogger, according to the complainant, promised to help “positively resolve a criminal case” in relation to the company registered in the name of E.Z. and his younger brother D.Yu, through critical videos that were supposed to help investigators of the Syrdarya province police department make a positive decision.
The report says that Muminov “demanded $10,000 for this, received $3,800 in advance, spent it on his own needs and did not fulfill his promise.”
In addition, according to the Tashkent police department, in October 2021, at a meeting with citizen A.T. in the Jizzakh province, the blogger said that he had filmed a critical video about his company, which, after being published on the blogger’s Youtube channel, could lead to the opening of a criminal case and arrest of the company chief. In return of keeping the information secret, he allegedly asked US$ 70 thousand.
As evidence, A.T. also provided with an audio recording of a conversation with Muminov and asked them to take legal action.
A criminal case was opened against Abduqodir Muminov under Fraud and Extortion charges of the Criminal Code, with investigation underway.
At the end of December 2022, the blogger reported an attack by unknown people who smashed the glass of his car and beat him. He said that they seized the flash drive from his car’s video recorder, on which there were records of his personal conversations and conversations with people who contacted him. The Tashkent police department reported that it opened a criminal case on this fact under article 164 of the Criminal Code (robbery).
