On Thursday, March 13, the Appellate Military Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan held another hearing in the case concerning the so-called “assassination attempt” on Uzbek citizens Komil Allamjonov and Dmitry Li.

As in the court of first instance, the defense attorneys of the convicted continue to insist that the appellate panel ensure the in-person attendance of Allamjonov and Li so that they may be questioned as alleged victims in order to establish the truth. However, without providing any explanation, the judges have repeatedly denied these requests.

Since Komil Allamjonov did not appear before the first-instance court, the judge personally read out his statements from the preliminary investigation.

The refusal of Allamjonov and Li to participate in one of the most high-profile trials of Mirziyoyev’s “New Uzbekistan” suggests that, if they were to appear in court, they would be unable to answer the defense attorneys’ questions, leading to the collapse of the case, which appears to be built on fabricated charges.

The next hearing in this case is scheduled for March 17.

On February 12, the Military Court of Uzbekistan handed down sentences ranging from 7 to 23 years of imprisonment to ten individuals convicted under a fabricated criminal case concerning Allamjonov and Li.

All court proceedings have been conducted behind closed doors, and the criminal case regarding the so-called “assassination attempt” on Allamjonov and Li remains classified.

Neither Komil Allamjonov, a former high-ranking official from the president’s inner circle, nor Dmitry Li, the director of the National Agency for Advanced Projects of the Republic of Uzbekistan, has made any public statements or provided clarifications regarding this highly controversial case.

According to Radio Liberty Uzbekistan, which was one of the first to report on the alleged assassination attempt on Allamjonov, and later on Dmitry Li—who holds a monopoly in Uzbekistan’s gambling industry—the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, was allegedly behind these attacks, with a promised payment of $1.5 million to the hired assassins.

Commenting on the incident to Financial Times journalist Polina Ivanova, Allamjonov stated that “the attacker’s weapon, an old Kalashnikov, jammed—this is the best explanation for why I survived.” A remark that, as the saying goes, speaks for itself.

The continuous commissioned publications of articles in foreign media regarding the alleged assassination attempts on Allamjonov and Li only reinforce public scepticism in Uzbekistan. Many believe this so-called crime existed only on paper, serving merely as a pretext for yet another politically motivated criminal case that benefits the Mirziyoyev administration.