On January 9 2025, the judicial board of the Military Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan, chaired by the deputy judge Akmal Fayzullayevich Jonqobilov, sentenced Valijon Rakhmanov, Lieutenant Colonel of the Military Counterintelligence Department of the State Security Service of Uzbekistan, to 16 years in a general regime colony under part one of Article 157 ‘Treason against the State’ of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan.

On February 26 2024, in the city of Tashkent, Valijon Rakhmanov was detained by officers of the Internal Security Department of the Uzbek State Security Service on suspicion of spying for the U.S. Government.

The political opposition movement Erkin O’zbekiston has every reason to believe that Valijon Rakhmanov was the victim of a conspiracy involving high-ranking corrupt officials of the Central Office of the State Security Service (SGB), the Ministry of Defence and the State Security Service of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

In order to cover up the embezzlement in gigantic amounts in the units of the armed forces and defence industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan, high-ranking corrupt officials of the power bloc of Uzbekistan initiated a criminal prosecution against a principled officer of the Military Counterintelligence Department of the SGB, which was based on knowingly false testimony of Valijon Rakhmanov’s former colleague.

We will soon provide detailed information on the Valijon Rakhmanov case.