Blogger Emine Karamanova has been sentenced to 7.5 years in prison

During the court session on December 13 at the Tashkent regional court on criminal cases, Emine Karamanova's (also known as Lemara Mirzaahmedova) 7.5-year prison sentence from the lower instance court was upheld. Abdurahmon Tashanov, the Chairman of the "Ezgulik" society, announced this decision on his social media page.

Karamanova, a 47-year-old blogger, faced charges under Articles 139 (Defamation), 140 (Insult), and 165 (Extortion) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The investigative body dropped the charges of Article 167 (Robbery by misappropriation) and Article 228 (Forgery of documents) against the blogger.

One of the extortion episodes involved an official from the Yangiyol district administration.

The blogger will serve her sentence in a penal colony.

It's worth noting that social media activist Emine-Lemara Mirzaahmedova was arrested on March 1 of this year by the DIA of the Tashkent region. She was accused of violating Articles 139, 140, 165, 167, and 228 of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan. Allegedly, Mirzaahmedova's LLC, under her leadership, misappropriated budget funds through document forgery, resulting in the initiation of a criminal case against her.

Additionally, officials allocated 157 million soums of budget funds through this LLC for constructing an additional farm building for School No. 7 under the authority of the public education department. However, 13 million 441 thousand soums were allegedly embezzled for work that was not completed, and the scope of work was artificially increased.

The administration clarified that Mirzaahmedova's arrest was unrelated to her blogging activities.