In Tashkent, a 29-year-old man who beat to death the five-month-old child of the woman he was living with has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.
The incident occurred on February 14, 2026, at around 7:00 p.m. in the Yashnabad district. That day, the intoxicated defendant came home and went to sleep. Toward evening, he was woken by the baby's constant crying. He began shouting at his partner, demanding she calm the child. But when he realized she wasn't home and wasn't answering her phone, he grew angry.
"After the baby was born, her attitude toward me became colder. Sometimes she'd leave the house without saying where she was going, and she'd turn her phone off. That's when I started suspecting her of cheating. I found messages on her phone with a former acquaintance of hers — the one who'd left her after she got pregnant. I told her flatly that if she wanted to live with me, she couldn't be in contact with other men. When I came into the house that day, I saw the baby lying there alone, crying. I looked for his mother but couldn't find her. Her phone was off, and her friends said she wasn't with them. So I figured she'd gone to see her old acquaintance, and I got jealous," the defendant said.
According to him, since the baby wouldn't stop crying, he struck him several times across the face with the back of his hand, trying to quiet him. When that didn't work, he grabbed the baby by the shoulders and neck several times and shook him. He then put the child in a stroller and went out to a shop for beer.
When he returned home, the man noticed a suspicious silence and went over to check on the baby. Seeing that he had turned blue, he checked for a pulse and breathing. Finding no signs of life, he called an ambulance. Since it was taking too long to arrive, he carried the baby outside and flagged down a passing ambulance on the street. The child was taken to the hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
According to the forensic medical examination, the cause of death was a closed head injury and cerebral hemorrhage. Although the baby was also found to have had pneumonia, myocarditis, and hepatitis, the examination determined that death resulted specifically from the blows inflicted on him.
In court, the woman stated that on the day of the incident she had gone to see an acquaintance, and that her phone was off because it was malfunctioning. She also said she had left the child with the man because she trusted him.
"When we started living together, he said he'd treat the child as his own. Before this happened, he was good to him. So it never even crossed my mind that he could hurt a five-month-old baby," the woman said.
The defendant admitted he understood that a five-month-old could not defend himself, and that blows from an adult could cause him serious injury. He expressed remorse and asked the court for leniency. The man was found guilty under Article 97, Part 2, Point "c" (Premeditated murder of a person known by the perpetrator to be in a helpless state). He received a 16-year prison sentence.
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