The Tashkent’s Uchtepa district criminal court today sentenced religious figure Alisher Tursunov, aka Mubashshir Akhmad, the spokesman to the Supreme Court Aziz Abidov said.

Alisher Tursunov was found guilty under the following charges of the Criminal Code:

• part 2 of Article 156 (Intentional actions that humiliate national honor and dignity, insult the feelings of citizens in connection with their religious or atheistic beliefs, committed with the intent to incite hostility, intolerance, or discord toward groups of the population based on national, racial, ethnic, or religious grounds charge) / punishable by house arrest for 3 to 5 years or imprisonment for 3 to 5 years);
• clause "g" of Part 3 of Article 244-1 (Production, storage, distribution, or display of materials containing a threat to public safety and public order using the media or telecommunications networks, as well as the internet charge/ punishable by imprisonment for 5 to 8 years);
• Article 244-3 (Illegal production, storage, import, or distribution of materials with religious content / punishable by a fine of 100 to 200 BCUs or correctional labor for up to three years).

Taking into account mitigating circumstances and the cumulative nature of the offenses, the court sentenced him to 2 years and 6 months imprisonment in a general colony.

Furthermore, the court ordered the blocking of Mubashshir Ahmad's pages and channels on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, and YouTube (Mubashshir Ahmad and Azon Global - Muqobil akhborot-taqliliy channel).

At the hearing on September 18, the state prosecutor, Erkin Narzullaev, Deputy Prosecutor of the Uchtepa District, requested that Tursunov be sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and a fine of 150 BCUs (approximately 61.8 million soums).

The defense, represented by three attorneys, insisted on dismissing some of the charges, arguing that the defendant's actions had ceased to pose a public danger, and requested that Article 70 of the Criminal Code (exemption from liability due to a change in circumstances) be applied.

They also requested that Tursunov's health, his role in educating young people, and his status as the family's sole breadwinner be taken into account. The defendant himself supported his lawyers' arguments.

The hearing had previously been postponed three times: from September 22 to September 29, and then from September 29 to October 2, after which the hearing was scheduled for October 8.