Tashkent province’s Akkurgan District Criminal Court on May 8 sentenced 21-year-old student Jakhongir Ulugmurodov to three years in prison for distributing a Muslim song, the press service of Supreme Court said.
Judge Sanjar Isakulov found him guilty under 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 charge. He was sentenced to a more lenient imprisonment to three years instead of from 5 to 8 years.
At the beginning of the year, Jakhongir Ulugmurodov was taken away from his house in Yangiyul district by a local inspector. After that, a link was found on his phone to a nasheed (Muslim chant) hosted on the open YouTube platform, which he sent to his classmates in a Telegram group in 2022. According to the conclusion of the Committee on Religious Affairs, the religious song is "impregnated with the ideas of fanaticism."
The press service of the Supreme Court underscored that he sent to the Alhamdulillah Telegram group with 10 members a link to a nasheed called “Shahid bulib ketsak rozi bülingiz” (“Be pleased if we become martyrs”), calling for “jihad” and "hijri". For this reason, the iPhone X was seized as evidence.
The student's relatives are dissatisfied with the court's decision and said they would file an appeal.
In early February, 22-year-old student Sardor Rakhmonkulov was sentenced in Tashkent to five years in prison for distributing nasheeda. After a public outcry, the court of appeal changed the sentence to a suspended sentence with a two-year probationary period, after which he was released in the courtroom.
