The building where the family orphanage is located / Photo: Kun.uz

According to Article 393 of the Criminal Procedural Code (transfer of the criminal case according to the relevance of the trial), this criminal case was sent to the Tashkent city court for a new review in the appellate procedure. Spokesman of the Supreme Court Aziz Obidov informed about this.

"According to the requirements of Article 19 of the Criminal Procedural Code (public hearing of criminal cases in court), this criminal case will be considered in a closed court session, and additional information will be provided at the end of the trial," the official report reads.

It should be recalled that according to the verdict of the Khiva district court, Oybek Masharipov, who worked as head of the Khorezm regional justice department, and Anvar Kuryazov, who was the head of the Yangiarik district emergency situations department, were found guilty of having sexual relations with children of the orphanage and were sentenced to 1.5 years of imprisonment.  

Another figure in the criminal case - the head of the orphanage who forced underage girls to have sex with different men - was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison.

Three defendants appealed against the verdict to the Khorezm regional court, but the appellate court left the sentence unchanged.

The public learned about this crime 7 months after the verdict of the first instance court. And it caused a sensation that the sex crimes continued for months, and the court imposed non-custodial sentences on the former officials.

After that, it was reported that the Khorezm regional prosecutor’s office lodged a protest with the Supreme Court because the punishment given to Masharipov and Kuryazov was light. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the appellate court.