A court in Tashkent this week found former Minister of Agriculture Aziz Voitov guilty of embezzlement in a case that included 61 other defendants.
Announcing the news on Telegram, Supreme Court press secretary Aziz Abidov named only one other defendant, Kh. Karimov, who had previously served as director of the Agency for Agricultural Services under the Ministry of Agriculture.
Karimov (presumably of no relation to the late former Uzbek President Islam Karimov) was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison, and will barred from holding official positions for three years.
Voitov, on the other hand, will serve no prison sentence. Although the core charge under which he was convicted, Article 167, carries a possible prison sentence of up to 10 years, the law also includes a clause that allows the court not to apply a custodial sentence in cases where compensation has been paid.
Voitov, who had previously served as first deputy minister of investments and foreign trade, was appointed minister of agriculture in August 2022. He was dismissed in October 2023 and arrested in December of that year on embezzlement charges.
When the trial began in early September 2024, Voitov and 49 others were listed as defendants in the massive corruption case (as of reporting on the verdicts, the case eventually included 62 people in total). Charges ranged from embezzlement and fraud, to tax evasion, abuse of power, and forgery.
Although Uzbekistan’s Anti-Corruption Agency said in a September 6, 2024 statement that it would be appropriate under Uzbek law to hold the case in the open, given that it focused on offenses related to the professional activities of civil servants, before the second day of hearings even began lawyers in the case filed motions to bar media from taking photographs, filming videos, and recording audio of the trial. The judge agreed; journalists complained but to no avail.
A few days later, the presiding judge closed the court entirely, citing the possibility of “disclosure of official information.” In later statements, officials argued that the case needed to be held behind closed doors to prevent public pressure on the court.
In late September 2024, Kun.uz reviewed the indictment against Voitov and two of the other defendants and reported that at least some of the charges related to Voitov’s time as chairman of the board of Uzsanoatqurilishbank from late 2017 to mid-2020 – at which time he became first deputy minister of investment and foreign trade.
The indictment alleged that in 2016, Voitov established a company, Lanell Group LLC, under the name of a former classmate, who was nominally appointed its head. But Voitov managed operations alongside his wife and father-in-law, named by Kun.uz as “A. Karimov.” (It’s unclear from Kun.uz’s reporting if Kh. Karimov has any relation to A. Karimov. The former’s name only appears in articles related to the verdicts this week, sourced from Abidov’s statement on Telegram).
It appears from the indictment that in one case Voitov used his position at Uzsanoatqurilishbank to give his secret side business loans and illegally extend the loan repayment period, all the while embezzling 600,000 euros worth of loans. Other instances involved construction contracts, including during his time as minister. Voitov apparently denied any knowledge of Lanell Group LLC and accused his former classmate of slandering him with the accusation. He reportedly denied other aspects of the indictment, too.
In total, the incitement Kun.uz reported on stated that the amount of misappropriated loan funds, budget money, and damages to state interests exceeded 200 billion Uzbek som (around $16.1 million).
But that was it. Given that the trial had been closed mere days after it started, there were not many more reports about it until the verdicts were announced this week. It’s unsurprising, given the circumstances, that media coverage of the case is almost entirely devoid of details as to the crimes committed.
Even the fact that Voitov has avoided a prison sentence is only barely explained. Supreme Court press secretary Abidov’s statement claims that “due to the full compensation for the material damage caused” Voitov was sentenced to a fine and correctional labor and will be subject to a three-year ban on holding official positions.
“The money paid into the deposit account was transferred to the state,” Abidov wrote. The precise amount repaid is not reported in the statement.
Nine other defendants were handed prison sentences and 51 given punishments other than prison.
While the government would like to characterize the case as anti-corruption, the lack of transparency regarding the trial and the details of the alleged crimes renders it difficult to reach that conclusion. For example, other than the fact of his conviction, there is very little publicly available information about Kh. Karimov and what crimes he committed to earn more than eight years in prison. All we know for certain is that Voitov was rich enough to pay off his case and Karimov was apparently not.