Reportedly, Komiljon Akhmedov left a post on his Facebook channel “Kokandjanim” with the title “An illegal church is operating in the city of Kokand”. This post was re-shared by blogger Olimjon Khaydarov on his page. Both bloggers later deleted the posts.

After that, A. Ayrapetov, the pastor of the “Vozrojdeniye” Evangelical Christian church in Kokand city, referred to in the post, filed a complaint with the Kokand city DIA.

During the pre-trial investigation, it was found that this church located in the city of Kokand has been registered with the Ministry of Justice and has been operating officially since 2019. Also, in the text of the post distributed by the bloggers, according to the expert opinion of the Committee on Religious Affairs, it was found that there is a situation of wrong assessment of the activities of the representatives of the state agencies and there are features that promote religious enmity in the citizens who believe in the religion of Islam against the citizens who believe in the Christian religion.

On July 22, in the case heard by the Kokand city court on criminal cases, K. Akhmedov said that he really posted the above post on his “Kokandjanim” channel, after some time he deleted this post and requested that the situation be controlled by the relevant authorities.

O. Khaydarov stated in the court that he did not share such a post.

“In the court, the offender O. Khaydarov really opened a channel so-called “Olimjon Khaydarov”, posted various topics on this channel. On June 26, 2022, on the Facebook social network, he noticed the message about the illegal Russian church located on the Chust street, Kokand city, Fergana region, but he did not post it on his Facebook social network. It is possible that it was posted by another person on his behalf, he left a post reacting to the materials promoting religious hatred, and asked the authorities to control this religious situation. According to him, this unknown person stated that the texts in the post were incorrect, the conclusion was taken from another channel, and it had nothing to do with the “Kokandjanim” channel.

Despite the fact that K. Akhmedov admitted his offense, but O. Khaydarov did not, their offense is fully confirmed by the explanatory letters in the case documents, expert opinion, photos taken from their phone and screenshots, and other objective evidence collected in the case,” the copy of the court decision presented to Kun.uz by the Supreme Court press service.

Based on the above, citizens Komiljon Akhmedov and Olimjon Khaydarov were found to have committed an offense under Article 184-3 of the Criminal Code, and both of them were sentenced to 15 days of administrative imprisonment.

Also, in the decision, it is indicated that 675,000 soums of prison expenses will be collected from the offenders for the days spent in prison.

Aziz Obidov, head of the Supreme Court press service, informed Kun.uz that as of July 23, 11:00, citizens or their lawyers have not filed an appeal against the court verdict.