“Officers seduced underage girls from the orphanage, and the manager acted as an accomplice. Girls placed under the care of the state in a family-type orphanage were severely punished, deprived of food, and manipulated into having sexual intercourse with adult men. For this, officials solved the problems of the new “mother” and turned a blind eye to violations of the law on her part,” the report reads.

Nemolchi.uz emphasized that underage girls, whom these people were supposed to take care of, turned out to be completely defenseless.

“Who should complain if the manager makes you have sex with officials who have connections and power? Who will listen to teenagers if they go to the police department or the prosecutor’s office? The psyche of the girls was broken, they were sold and bought like things. Of course, at the trial, all the accused said that the girls did it of their own free will and no one forced them. No one wondered if these children had the freedom of choice?” the representatives of the project noted.

In September 2022, the trial court found guilty:

- the head of a local family orphanage for committing crimes under Articles 135 (human trafficking), 167 (theft by embezzlement) and 209 (forgery) of the Criminal Code. The court sentenced her to 5 and a half years in prison;
- the head of the regional justice department and the head of the district emergency situations department in the commission of crimes under Article 128 (engaging in sexual intercourse with a person under the age of sixteen) and the old version of Article 128-1 (engaging in sexual intercourse with a person under the age of sixteen up to eighteen years of age by providing material values or property benefits) of the Criminal Code. The court sentenced everyone to one and a half years of restriction of freedom: during this time they are forbidden to leave the house from 22:00 to 06:00, and they are also forbidden to change their place of residence without the consent of the probation authorities and leave their region of residence.

In December 2022, the court of appeal upheld the verdict.

“The officials were given a year and a half of restriction of freedom in accordance with the law. Is this a sufficient punishment in relation to the people in the described case? Alas, even among employees of departments, many believe that there are depraved underage girls, they hang themselves on men and want sex. Nobody wants to think about the reasons. Nobody wants to hear that the age of consent in our country is 16. This means that any sex with a person under the age of 16 should be considered as rape,” Nemolchi.uz said.

They also emphasized that the punishment for having sex with a person under the age of 16 should be commensurate with the punishment for aggravated rape.

“Alas, although it seemed that they listened to us, in fact, no one wanted to significantly toughen the punishment. We advocated that sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16, if it happened through deceit, breach of trust, by providing material values or property benefits, should be sentenced to 8-11 years in prison. Unfortunately, we still do not know which option was presented to the deputies, and what they approved in the second reading,” the representatives of the project concluded.