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Uzbekistan’s former Energy Minister Jorabek Mirzamahmudov has been referred to trial on allegations that he and others embezzled 498 billion soums in state funds, in what amounts to one of the largest public-finance cases to reach a courtroom in the country’s energy sector.
Mirzamahmudov led the Ministry of Energy from September 2022 until his removal from office, after which President Mirziyoyev appointed Sherzod Khojayev as his replacement. The criminal case also ensnared his brother, who has been taken into custody as part of the same proceedings, according to Effect.uz.
A Career Built Across the Energy and Industrial Establishment
Mirzamahmudov, born in 1979 in Namangan region, accumulated an unusually broad résumé across Uzbekistan’s state industrial complex. He graduated from the University of Alabama in the United States in 2001 and from the Tashkent Institute of Chemical Technology in 2005. Between 2006 and 2012 he held various posts at Uzbekneftegaz, then served as deputy economics minister from 2012 to 2014 and as deputy chairman of Uzkimyosanoat from 2014 to 2017. A stint as a department head in the Cabinet of Ministers followed, after which he became acting director of the Agency for the Development of Atomic Energy under the Cabinet, and subsequently head of the Uzatom agency from 2019. He served as deputy energy minister from 2019 to 2020 before being appointed chairman of the board of Uzkimyosanoat JSC in January 2020, and eventually rose to lead the Energy Ministry itself.
Allegations and What Remains to Be Determined
The charges centre on the alleged misappropriation of state funds totalling 498 billion soums. The case raises pointed questions about oversight and financial controls within a sector that has struggled with chronic shortfalls in electricity and natural gas supply — problems that have drawn sustained public frustration. Whether the alleged misconduct contributed to those operational failures is among the questions that prosecutors and the defence will be expected to address before the court.
Under Uzbek law, the accused are presumed innocent until a verdict that has entered into legal force. The trial will test the evidence assembled by investigators and provide the first public accounting of the specific transactions at the heart of the allegations.