On December 4, the Payaryk cistrict criminal court of Samarkand province announced the verdict against a local neighborhood police officer. The court found him guilty of intimidating a 17-year-old teenager with imprisonment, leading the young man to commit suicide.
On February 20, police received a call that 17-year-old B.B., a resident of Kildon neighborhood in Bulungur District of Samarkand province, had driven off without permission in a GM Cobalt belonging to his uncle, B.K.
The teenager drove to Zarbdar District of Jizzakh province and spent the night there. On February 21, the officer Ikrom Khazratkulov (I.Kh.) and his relatives went there, found him, and brought him back.
The officer informed the teenager's uncle and mother (K.K.) that he had allegedly paid officers from the Zarbdar district police department 400,000 soums for the boy's return and demanded that the money be returned via bank transfer.
The police officer also told the relatives, "This guy will go to jail; he must be held accountable before the law," and then took the teenager away. It turned out that he had simply been driving him around until late at night without completing any paperwork. He then called the mother and asked her to pick up her son at the police station. When she didn't show up, around 11:00 PM, the officer brought B.B. home and left him with his relatives.
Upon hearing that he could go to prison for his actions, the teenager fell into a state of extreme fear. On February 22, in the barn at home, he doused himself with diesel fuel from a canister and set himself on fire. The teenager was hospitalized with severe burns, but died more than two months later, on May 6, at the Samarkand branch of the Republican Scientific Center for Emergency Medical Care.
Sentence
The court concluded that the officer’s guilt was fully proven during the trial and analysis of the victim's testimony and the evidence.
I. Kh. was found guilty under the clause b of Part 3 of Article 168 (Fraud committed through abuse of office) and the clause a of Part 3 of Article 207 (Official negligence resulting in death) of the Criminal Code.
He was sentenced to 2.5 years' imprisonment in a penal colony. He was also disqualified from working in the police system for two years.
