Lieutenant colonel and officials were caught in bribery scandal in Samarkand

Several officials, including a lieutenant colonel, have been apprehended on bribery charges in Samarkand, Kattakorgan, Pakhtachi, and Narpay districts, according to a report by the State Security Service of Uzbekistan.

In Samarkand City, Lieutenant Colonel S.I., head of the Department of Defense Affairs, and his assistant, F.E., were accused of abusing their positions. The officials allegedly demanded $600 from the family of a local man who had moved to the United States, in exchange for issuing a fraudulent military ID card indicating the man’s service in the mobilization reserve. The pair were caught red-handed accepting the payment.

In a separate incident, an inspector with the Kattakorgan District Tax Office, identified as M.R., reportedly requested 6 million soums to clear a local citizen’s 11.5 million soums tax debt from the electronic system and to issue falsified documentation of the payment. The inspector was arrested while receiving the money.

Further cases emerged in the Pakhtachi and Narpay districts. An employee from the National Guard's inter-district security department in Pakhtachi, Safdar Sh.A., allegedly sought 8 million soums and $600 to permit the extraction of gold-bearing stones from mine No. 25 at the Karakoton gold mine. He was arrested while accepting the final portion of the bribe. In Narpay district, engineer S.Sh. of the local Cadastre Chamber branch was accused of demanding $700 to issue a cadastral document for a residential property on behalf of a citizen's relative. He was detained with the cash in hand.

Criminal proceedings have been initiated against all the accused under relevant articles of Uzbekistan's Criminal Code, and investigations are ongoing.

This comes amid a wider crackdown on corruption, with officials previously caught accepting bribes in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, as well as in Khorezm and Andijan regions.