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Two deputy chiefs of Buston district administration in Andijan region have been convicted of bribery after demanding cash from fruit and vegetable farmers in exchange for fulfilling export plans on their behalf — and threatening to seize their land if they refused to pay.
The deputy responsible for agriculture and water management, identified by the initials U.S., exploited his oversight of farm export targets by demanding one million soums per hectare from orchardists and vegetable growers. He told farmers he would register their export quotas as fulfilled in return for the payments. Those who declined were warned their land allocations would be revoked. On 3 September 2025, he demanded five million soums from the manager of a farm called BIT for five hectares of land, ultimately receiving four million soums through an intermediary.
A Second Deputy, a Restaurant and a Sting
U.S. did not act alone. He coordinated with Sh.D., the district’s deputy chief for investment, industry and trade, to target a larger holding. Together they demanded payment from the LLC known as AF 505 for 65 of the company’s 105 hectares designated for orchards and vegetables, again promising to handle the entity’s export obligations in return.
On 5 September 2025, Sh.D. went to the Mirzoda restaurant — a property belonging to AF 505 in the district centre — to collect 40 million soums. He was detained there by law-enforcement officers conducting a covert operation as he received the money.
The Qo’rg’ontepa district criminal court convicted both officials on 25 February 2026 under Article 210 of the Criminal Code — bribery. A.S. was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment and Sh.D. to five years and six months. Both were also barred for two years from holding positions of official authority or financial responsibility in state or state-affiliated organisations. The verdict was upheld without modification on appeal in May 2026 and again on cassation review in October 2026, after defence lawyers filed complaints at both stages.
Part of a Broader Pattern
The case is one of several recent convictions of district and city-level officials in Uzbekistan for abusing administrative leverage over businesses. In August, the former mayor of Namangan city, Anvarzhan Otakhojayev, was sentenced to eleven years in prison. He had been detained by the State Security Service in September 2025 on allegations that he conspired with the head of a footwear manufacturing company to secure the right to build a multi-storey residential block on 35 sotikh of city land in exchange for sixty thousand dollars.
The Buston convictions illustrate a specific mechanism of official extortion tied to Uzbekistan’s export-quota system for agricultural produce: local administrators with authority over compliance records have used that power to extract payments from farmers who depend on their goodwill to avoid losing land tenure.