On August 15, the Tashkent’s Mirabad District Criminal Court will begin hearing the criminal case against former Minister of Agriculture Aziz Voitov.

Aziz Voitov has been charged under the following articles of the Criminal Code:

• Theft by misappropriation or embezzlement, committed on an especially large scale; by an organized group or in its interests;
• Abuse of power or official authority causing especially large-scale damage;
• Abuse of power or official authority causing especially large-scale damage;
• Forgery in office.

The defendants in the case also include businessmen Orzubek Rajabov and Alisher Urunbaev.

Orzubek Rajabov, the founder of Beltepa Master Stroy, a Tashkent-based company engaged in the construction of non-residential buildings, is charged under the following articles of the Criminal Code:

• Theft by misappropriation or embezzlement, committed on an especially large scale;
• Violation of the rules for the sale of goods or the provision of services worth an especially large scale;
• Forgery in an official capacity;
• Giving a bribe;
• Manufacturing, forgery of documents, stamps, seals, forms, their sale or use, committed repeatedly or by a dangerous recidivist; by prior conspiracy by a group of persons;
• Use of a knowingly forged document.

Alisher Urunbaev, the former owner of the Tashkent companies Lanell Group (raw materials for the textile industry) and Rainbow-Teks (preparation and spinning of cotton fibers), is accused of:

• Theft by misappropriation or embezzlement committed on an especially large scale.

The former Minister of Agriculture was taken into custody in December 2023. After his sacking at the end of October, the Accounts Chamber conducted an audit of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Voitov served as Minister of Agriculture from August 2022 to October 2023 (he was replaced by Ibrokhim Abdurakhmanov). Before that, from March 2020, he was the First Deputy Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade.