Extrajudicial execution

On the night of February 25-26, 2026, Ismoil Jakhongirov

was found dead in an isolation cell at Penal Colony No. 13 in Chirchik, Tashkent Region. He was a key witness in the high-profile case of the “assassination attempt” on Komil Allamjonov, the boyfriend of the head of the presidential administration of Uzbekistan, Saida Mirziyoyeva.

Jakhongirov’s death, which occurred under conditions of complete isolation and total control by the penitentiary system, has nothing to do with the “suicide” theory. This theory, actively promoted by media outlets affiliated with the Mirziyoyev regime, appears to be a deliberate attempt to mislead the public and conceal the true circumstances of the incident.

This is a deliberate extrajudicial execution carried out within the state penal system with the aim of eliminating a key witness and ultimately covering up the traces of a politically motivated trial.

According to investigators, the organizer of the assassination attempt on Komil Allamjonov was Shukhrat Rasulov, the former head of the Presidential State Security Service’s Internal Security Directorate, and one of the perpetrators was Ismail Jakhongirov.

On December 27, 2024, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Uzbekistan announced the involvement of two Russian citizens, Bislan Rasayev and Shamil Temirkhanov, in the case.

The court ordered their pretrial detention in absentia, after which both were placed on the international wanted list through Interpol.

Meanwhile, regime-controlled media actively circulated the theory that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov was involved in the Allamjonov case, shaping the corresponding narrative. By the time this material was published, Rasayev and Temirkhanov were no longer on the Interpol wanted list.

Ten defendants were charged in the fabricated criminal case, which was heard in complete secrecy by the Uzbek military court; each received prison sentences ranging from 7 to 23 years. The closed nature of the trial and the suppression of information clearly demonstrate the political nature of the case, in which foreign nationals were used to legitimize the falsifications and create the image of an external enemy.

An independent view on the “Allamjonov Case”

Ismail Jakhongirov’s death occurred at the most critical moment, when the fabricated charges began to crumble under the pressure of independent investigations.

The political opposition movement Erkin O’zbekiston openly stated from the outset that the “assassination attempt” on Komil Allamjonov was a carefully staged sham, and that the criminal case was purely politically motivated. This position was persistently communicated through both the movement’s own media outlets and internationally, leaving no doubt as to the artificiality and manipulative nature of the accusations.

Erkin O’zbekiston’s principled position has become the pretext for systematic and coordinated attacks on the movement’s social media, including mass complaints, information pressure campaigns, and targeted blocking. There are compelling reasons to believe that these actions are being initiated or coordinated by structures affiliated with the Mirziyoyev regime.

On January 8 of this year, Erkin O’zbekiston published an investigation into the “Allamjonov case,” a video version of which has garnered over one million views on YouTube.

The response was immediate: on January 10, Radio Liberty’s Uzbek service, which identifies itself as an independent news outlet but is directly affiliated with the regime and continues to broadcast and impose the official narrative, released a controversial video to obscure an alternative version of the investigation.

Meanwhile, proxies of Saida Mirziyoyeva and Komil Allamjonov attempted to have the Russian and Uzbek language content removed, using a full range of pressure, from bribery to outright threats. Eight complaints were simultaneously filed with YouTube’s legal department for “breach of privacy,” but the platform dismissed them as unfounded.

Chronicle of the extrajudicial execution of Ismail Jakhongirov

The publication of an alternative investigation on the channels of Erkin O’zbekiston sparked a widespread public outcry in Uzbekistan and provoked a sharp reaction among the organizers of the political provocation. Subsequent events unfolded according to a well-established playbook of eliminating witnesses using the Mirziyoyev regime’s repressive mechanisms.

In the middle of February 2026, the prison administration officially notified Ismoil Jakhongirov of his transfer to the Navoi maximum security prison colony, effectively marking the beginning of the final stage of neutralizing the key witness.

On February 23, under the pretext of violating prison rules, Ismoil Jakhongirov was placed in an isolation cell (SHIZO). In Uzbek prisons, SHIZO deprives prisoners of any protection, completely subjugates them to the power of security forces, and turns them into targets of systemic pressure from the regime.

According to our source in the Department of Corrections of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, prison staff and a lawyer who allegedly met with their client on February 25 recorded that at 5:00 PM local time, Jakhongirov was in “perfect health.”

However, given the virtual absence of an independent lawyers in Uzbekistan, and suppression of the right to communicate with the outside world under Article 109 of the Criminal Executive Code, except for contact with guards, such “confirmation” should be viewed as a pre-planned performance.

The lawyer was essentially acting as an instrument of the administration, formally providing an alibi to the penitentiary system and creating the illusion that the prisoner was in good health, while Jakhongirov may already have been dead.

On the morning of February 26, employees of the Yangiyul District Khokimiyat in Tashkent Region visited Jakhongirov’s family and informed them that he had been taken to intensive care after an alleged suicide attempt. When the relatives arrived at the prison, they were denied access to the facility’s management. It was only late that night that the prison administration informed the family that Ismoil Jakhongirov had been found in the isolation cell, hanged by his own clothes.

A specialist who examined Ismoil’s body documented numerous bruises and clenched teeth—clear signs of a violent death, indicative of the deliberate use of physical force. Despite the critical importance of this information, it was deliberately left undocumented, directly indicating an attempt by the authorities to conceal the circumstances of the incident and legitimize a fabricated version of “suicide.”

That same day, without the required toxicological and anatomical examinations, Ismoil has been hastily buried under the full supervision of law enforcement officers.

With this step, the Mirziyoyev regime clearly demonstrates that the authorities will use all available means, without regard for moral principles, to cover up the traces of their crimes.

Commenting on the official version of Ismoil Jakhongirov’s death, a source in Uzbekistan’s Department of Corrections emphasized that committing suicide in the cells of the country’s isolation cells, including Colony No. 13 in Chirchik, is virtually impossible. Each cell is under complete control: 24-hour lighting, constant video surveillance, peepholes checked every 15 minutes, and thorough inspections are conducted twice daily. There are no objects in the cells that could be used to hang yourself, making the official version of “suicide” completely untenable and at odds with the actual conditions of inmates’ detention.

Under these circumstances, the authorities’ version of “suicide” takes on the appearance of a sham. The attempt to present the incident as an accident appears to be a direct attempt by the Mirziyoyev regime to legitimize extrajudicial executions and cover up the their crimes.

A video message as a death sentence

The day after government-affiliated media reported the so-called assassination attempt on Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s daughter’s boyfriend —October 27, 2024 — Shokhrukh Akhmedov, subsequently sentenced to 23 years in prison as the second perpetrator, published a video message on social media along with Ismoil Jakhongirov.

In it, they declared their involvement in the “Allamjonov case” and announced that they were voluntarily surrendering to Uzbek law enforcement. They also emphasized the increasing number of deaths of suspects and convicts in pretrial detention centers and prison colonies, openly expressing fear for their own lives. Jakhongirov and Akhmedov made it clear that in the event of any emergency, responsibility for their fate rests entirely with law enforcement.

That same day, they distributed an audio recording addressed to the leadership and staff of Uzbekistan’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The statement contained a key claim: they asserted that there had been no assassination attempt on Komil Allamjonov. They claimed to have been hired by certain individuals for a monetary reward and to have agreed to play the role of “attackers,” unaware of the scale and consequences of the attack. They characterized the incident as part of a pre-planned PR stunt.

They claimed they realized they had been deceived: the contractor had failed to pay the promised reward, and they themselves had become expendable material in a pre-planned political stunt. Realizing they had become bargaining chips in someone else’s game, Jakhongirov and Akhmedov decided to publicly declare their innocence, appeal to law enforcement, provide irrefutable evidence of their innocence, and name the true masterminds of this scam. They hoped to protect themselves and initiate an official investigation into the manipulation and threats to their lives.

Meanwhile, news agencies both inside and outside Uzbekistan covering the “Allamjonov case” published only the first seconds of the video message, deliberately taking fragments out of context and creating a distorted impression of the content of their statements. Media outlets deliberately pushed to the public the version of the authors of the political staging, accusing Jakhongirov and Akhmedov of committing a crime without presenting any evidence. The main part of the message and the accompanying audio recording, containing key allegations of a pre-planned staging were completely ignored. They were thus denied the opportunity to publicly defend themselves, and the information space was used to create an accusatory narrative that directly threatened their lives.

Under a harsh authoritarian system, lacking the rule of law, independent lawyers, a judiciary, and a free media, this move effectively predetermined the transformation of Jakhongirov and Akhmedov into victims of a premeditated massacre. Instead of providing them with procedural guarantees and protection, state authorities initiated criminal prosecution, secured a guilty verdict, and placed them in solitary confinement. The death of one of them in a closed facility was presented as a “suicide,” which, under the circumstances, appears to be an attempt at institutional cover-up for an extrajudicial assassination and a signal to anyone who intends to publicly challenge the official version of events.

The role of the media in legitimizing the massacre

It is also necessary to highlight the role of propaganda outlets in this tragedy, particularly the RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service and its correspondent in Uzbekistan, Abdurakhman Tashanov, who also heads the human rights organization Ezgulik.

It should be noted that, both under the previous regime of Islam Karimov and in the “new Uzbekistan” of Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the existence of an independent press and independent civil society representatives remains impossible. To create the illusion of freedom of speech for the international community, the authorities use people like Tashanov and his organization as a facade of human rights compliance.

Being both a pro-government journalist and a “human rights activist”, Tashanov is able to voice strictly controlled narrative and compile human rights reports

that seemingly reflect the situation in the country. At the same time, the authorities deliberately turn him into a monopolist in relaying “alternative opinion” in Uzbekistan, using him as a tool: when necessary, he is used to convey a narrative favorable to the regime, such as the “assassination attempt” on Allamjonov.

It was Tashanov, through RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, who first publicized the “Allamjonov case,” after which local and international media systematically disseminated and amplified this fabricated story, turning one of the organizers of the sham into a “victim.”

This ensured the active dissemination of the “assassination attempt” narrative without any evidence, deliberately shaping public opinion in the regime’s interests, and the Uzbek government used this to conceal its responsibility for political repression and actual political assassinations. Tashanov, meanwhile, served as a tool of the regime, legitimizing fabricated charges and discrediting alternative narratives.

Even after news of Jakhongirov’s death, which Erkin O’zbekiston was the first to report, including publishing his death certificate, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, along with other pro-government media outlets, continued to push the public narrative that Jakhongirov was the perpetrator of the “assassination attempt” on Allamjonov. This targeted information campaign demonstrates the deliberate use of state and regime-controlled media to perpetuate a falsified narrative, deliberately conceal a crime, and discredit a key witness, while simultaneously ignoring the true organizers and perpetrators of the faked assassination attempt.

Who benefits from the death of a key witness?

The death of Ismail Jakhongirov finally reveals the so-called “new Uzbekistan” of the Mirziyoyev regime. This is not a state governed by the rule of law, but a mafia-like structure that makes no secret of its ties to the state apparatus, where human life becomes a bargaining chip in the struggle for political dominance. Here, law and justice are used as tools to serve the personal interests of the elite, and any legal procedures are completely subordinated to the political needs of the ruling regime.

The chronology of events and the logic of what is happening lead to only one possible conclusion: the main beneficiaries of Ismail Jakhongirov’s death are three figures:

— Saida Mirziyoyeva, the Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration;

— Botir Tursunov, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Security Service;

— Komil Allamjonov, an independent adviser to the Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration and the administration’s representative in the United States.

Using their administrative and security resources, these individuals staged an assassination attempt, with the goal of weakening the positions of political rivals and consolidating control over crucial evidence.

This alliance, uniting forces within the government, directed the full potential of the state machine toward achieving its goal: staging an assassination attempt in order to clear the political field, discredit their opponents, and seize complete control over the political situation in Uzbekistan. This was a deliberate political act, the purpose of which was to preserve power in the hands of a narrow political elite.

In this logic, the roles of witnesses were purely functional: their lives and freedom were subordinated to the interests of those who controlled the process. Preserving their testimony was beneficial only as long as it could be used to falsify evidence and eliminate political enemies.

The publication of an alternative investigation into the “Allamjonov case” on January 8 on Erkin O’zbekiston resources marked a significant moment in the unfolding of this political process. Fearing exposure and revelations of manipulation, the perpetrators of the crime resorted to extreme measures. Ismoil Jakhongirov became the victim of a political assassination orchestrated to preserve the image and political career of the president’s daughter, Saida Mirziyoyeva. This event demonstrated a complete disregard for human life, laws, and ethical norms for the sake of maintaining political power.

Jakhongirov’s death is more than just a tragedy. It is a symbol of the political repression, extrajudicial execution, and political assassination that are becoming the norm in Uzbekistan under the Mirziyoyev regime. She emphasizes that under an authoritarian regime, complete legal incompetence, and the suppression of human rights, any attempts at resistance and disclosure of the truth are suppressed with cruel and inhumane methods.

The murder of the witness is a call for action

In an isolation cell at Penal Colony No. 13 in Chirchik, Ismoil Jakhongirov became the victim of a deliberate, planned, and carefully concealed extrajudicial execution. This is not simply an act of state terror—it is the deliberate elimination of a witness caught in the middle of the Mirziyoyev regime’s dirty political struggle. Those involved in this system are prepared to use any vile means to cover up their crimes and maintain the illusion of control.

Jahongirov’s death is a clear signal to all prisoners in the “Allamjonov case”: silence means death, action means a chance for survival. The fear the authorities are trying to control must be overcome.

The surviving prisoners should act immediately. The only way to survive is to publicly expose the regime’s lies and appeal to the Erkin O’zbekiston movement for support. The sooner the truth comes to light, the better their chances of survival. Passivity in these circumstances is a death sentence.

Families of political prisoners must constantly monitor the health and conditions of their loved ones, not trust a word from prison administrations, and immediately report any suspicious actions by the authorities to the Erkin O’zbekiston movement. Their proactive stance can save lives and prevent further casualties.

A list of all participants in this criminal scheme must be compiled: those who fabricated charges, manipulated the justice system, and issued criminal orders. Each of them must bear full political and criminal responsibility for the terror against their own people.

The regime of Shavkat Mirziyoyev must understand: the era of behind-the-scenes deals and hidden manipulations is over. The time for lies is over. The time has come for direct accountability for the bloodshed, repression, and destruction of those who dare to fight for truth and freedom.