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An audio recording circulating in Surkhondaryo region purports to capture Shurchi district governor Akbarali Ishmurzoyev berating farmers with degrading and insulting language during official meetings held in October 2026. The recording was published by Effect.uz, which said it could not independently verify that the voice belongs to Ishmurzoyev or confirm the precise circumstances in which it was made.
According to the outlet, the meetings took place at a chemical plant building in Shurchi district and at the district administration itself. In the audio, a man introduced as the hokim demands an account from a farmer over grain deliveries to the state, land-use obligations and the alleged resale of barley. The language used is openly contemptuous: the farmer is repeatedly called a criminal, accused of knowing how to misappropriate credit and sow unauthorised crops on state land, and told he will be taught the Land Code by force.
“You know how to misappropriate credit, you know how to sow something else on state land, you know how to bag up barley and sell it… You don’t know the Land Code. Now I will teach it to you,” the recording states, in Effect.uz’s rendering of the exchange.
A second passage quoted by the outlet involves what appears to be a threat about construction work tied to weather conditions, delivered in coarse terms that also reference the farmer’s mother — a particularly sharp form of insult in Uzbek social norms.
Farmers who provided information to Effect.uz said the conduct was not isolated. They described late-night meetings in Shurchi that sometimes ran until 23:00, at which similar scenes had occurred. Some said their phones were confiscated at the start of sessions, preventing them from recording events. A further allegation — that Ishmurzoyev had on occasion used physical force against farmers — was included in the report, but Effect.uz stated it had no independently confirmed video or other evidence to support that specific claim.
The publication drew a distinction between the legitimate authority of a district chief to demand accountability from farmers and the separate legal and disciplinary question of whether an official may demean the dignity of citizens in the course of doing so. It noted that when such conduct occurs in a formal official setting, the manner in which a state representative exercises power is a matter of public concern.
Effect.uz said it had sought official comment from Shurchi district administration and relevant oversight bodies and would publish any formal response it received. As of publication, no such response had been provided.
Shurchi is a district in Surkhondaryo region in southern Uzbekistan. District hokims are appointed officials who hold broad administrative authority over agriculture, land use and local governance within their territories.