A 22-year-old university student has been sentenced to six years in prison after driving away his neighbor’s Nexia without permission in Qiziltepa district of Navoi province, following an argument with his girlfriend.
The student, identified as U.B., was a fourth-year student at Karshi State Technical University. On March 26, 2026, his girlfriend told him by phone that she wanted to end their relationship. Angered, he decided to travel to Karshi to see her.
At about 2 a.m. on March 27, he took neighbor H.B.’s car, which had been left unlocked with the key inside. He drove it to Mubarek district and later to the home of a friend in Kasbi district, where he slept.
After learning that Internal Affairs Department officers were looking for him, U.B. left the car at a café parking lot in Mubarek and took a taxi to Karshi. He later said he had not intended to sell the vehicle and that his friend had not been involved.
H.B. told the court he had previously allowed U.B. to drive the car and had given him a spare key, but had not authorized him to take it that night. He said he would not have reported the incident had he known U.B. was responsible and asked the court for a non-custodial sentence.
Investigators initially charged U.B. under Article 267, Part 2, clauses “b” and “g” of the Criminal Code, alleging a prior conspiracy with his friend to hijack the vehicle for theft. The court found no evidence of such a conspiracy and reclassified the offense under Article 267, Part 1.
The court said U.B.’s age, student status, lack of prior convictions and the victim’s lack of claims had been considered, but concluded that a non-custodial or lighter sentence was inappropriate given the seriousness and social danger of the offense.
The six-year sentence raises broader questions about proportionality. In Germany, unauthorized use of a vehicle without the owner’s consent can carry a maximum of three years in prison or a fine. In England and Wales, the separate offense of taking a vehicle without authority has historically carried a maximum of six months on summary conviction. In the United States, unauthorized vehicle use, where there is no intent to permanently deprive the owner, is treated as a separate offense in a number of states and can be a misdemeanor rather than a lengthy prison offense. These systems differ from Uzbekistan’s legal framework, but the comparison underscores how severe a six-year custodial sentence can appear for conduct involving no violence, no sale of the vehicle and no established conspiracy.
The case also highlights the persistence of a criminal-law framework dating back to 1994, when Uzbekistan’s Criminal Code was adopted under then-President Islam Karimov. Although the code has been amended repeatedly, the case raises a legitimate question about whether provisions and sentencing approaches rooted in that era remain proportionate to contemporary standards of justice. The six-year term in a case where the car was recovered, the owner sought no punishment involving imprisonment and the court rejected the alleged conspiracy suggests that the relevant provisions and sentencing practice need to be reconsidered and reformed.
