A citizen of Uzbekistan received a court verdict for serving in the Russian army

A court in Uzbekistan has sentenced a citizen of the country, who previously signed a contract with the Russian army and participated in the war in Ukraine, to four years and two months of imprisonment, writes “Gazeta.uz”.

The criminal code of Uzbekistan prohibits its citizens from serving in the armies and other power structures of foreign countries.

The 39-year-old Uzbek, whose name has not been released, signed a contract in June 2023 in Moscow, where he came in search of seasonal work, writes the Uzbek publication. Under the terms of the contract, he was offered 450,000 “combat” rubles per month, the defendant said. However, he received only two payments of 150 thousand rubles, then the payments stopped.

The man took part in battles in Shakhtarsk and Bakhmut and, according to him, “killed more than 10 Ukrainian soldiers.” In December 2023, he returned to Uzbekistan, where he voluntarily surrendered to law enforcement authorities. The court took into account the guilty plea as a mitigating circumstance.

The authorities of Central Asian countries have repeatedly warned citizens about the responsibility of participating in the war against Ukraine. In October, a court in the Samarkand region of Uzbekistan sentenced a 56-year-old local resident to three years in prison. In September, a court in Tashkent sentenced a mercenary of the “Wagner” PMC to restriction of freedom. He did not have time to take part in the war, instead he had time to take part in the mutiny of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the march to Moscow.