The Mirabad District Criminal Court appointed a trial of the criminal case against blogger Abduqodir Muminov for July 25 at 15:00, the press service of the Supreme Court said. The case will be considered by Judge Sardorbek Sodikov.
At the end of December 2022, Abdukodir Muminov, a blogger, author of the Ko’zgu Youtube channel (247 thousand subscribers) reported an attack by unknown people who broke the glass of his car with a bat and beat him. He said that they seized a flash drive from the video recorder of his car, on which there were records of his personal conversations and conversations with people who contacted him. The Tashkent city police department launched a criminal case on this fact under Robbery charge.
In February, Muminov was arrested on suspicion of fraud and extortion that occurred in October 2021. According to the Tashkent police department, citizen E.Z. allegedly filed a complaint and asked to take legal action against Abdukodir Muminov. In October 2021, the blogger, according to his words, promised to help to achieve “a positive ruling on his criminal case” in relation to the company owned by E. Z. and his younger brother D. Yu, through critical videos that were supposed to facilitate the taking of a “positive ruling” by the investigators of the Syrdarya province police department.
The message noted that the blogger allegedly demanded $10,000 for this, and “received $3,800 of this amount in advance, spent it for his own needs and did not kept his promise.”
In addition, according to the TCPD, in October 2021, at a meeting with citizen A.T. in Jizzakh province, the blogger said that he had filmed a negative video about his company, which, after being published on his Youtube channel, could lead to a criminal case and detention of the head of the company. For keeping the information secret, he allegedly asked for 70 thousand dollars.
In the same month, the Prosecutor General's Office denied rumors about the death of Abdukodir Muminov in a pre-trial detention center.
According to the indictment, Muminov, 33, is facing several charges, Violation of privacy, entailing grave consequences, committed out of mercenary motives, Extortion in an especially large amount, Fraud repeatedly or by a dangerous recidivist; in an especially large amount, Violation of the rules for trading in goods or providing services worth in an especially large size and Complicity in giving a bribe charges of the Criminal Code.
According to the Supreme Court, 14 people incurred damages, estimated at 903.4 million soums75 thousand USD.
