Almost 5.3 thousand people have been acquitted in the last 7 years. Is it more or less?

An acquittal verdict was issued by the Uzbek courts against 5,304 persons in the period from 2016 to July 2023. Between 2007 and 2015, the acquittal was 110.
In December 2011, there was a lot of fate, like Dilshod Masharipov, an operational employee of the Khazorasp district internal affairs department, who was taken from his workhouse as criminals and sentenced to 12 years on invented charges, and on September 22, 2022, acquitted in the Supreme Court, or Abror Shamarov, a resident of Tashkent region, who was acquitted after the scandals. In a society where the judicial system is not free, it is not at all a saying that such test moments become a heavy part, that the stamp that innocent citizens are tried on the forehead is easily pasted.    

With a focus on numbers, 498,730 criminal cases against 688,354 persons were heard by the courts in Uzbekistan in 2007-2015, with only 110 being acquitted. In the years 2016-2022 and the first half of 2023, there were 352,842 criminal cases against 457,823 persons and an acquittal verdict for 5,304 persons. 

Press secretary of the Supreme Court Aziz Obidov Kun.uz the increase in acquittal sentences is due to the result of the reforms carried out in the judicial system, he said.

In order to guarantee the rights and legitimate interests of citizens in the country, the legislative framework is being harmoniously improved on international templates. In this process, special attention is paid to the introduction into national practice of institutions and principles successfully implemented in the experience of developed countries. 

In particular, a preliminary hearing Institute was introduced into criminal procedure legislation from February 2021 in order to ensure the fullness of the principle of disclosure of cases during the trial. Through this institute, an opportunity was created to prevent procedural violations that could be allowed in the court session, to establish effective judicial control over the activities of inquiry and investigative bodies.

In civil and economic courts, however, a pre-trial institution was introduced. It laid the groundwork for eliminating the shortcomings identified in the processes of preparing the case for a court hearing and determining from the parties the possibility of concluding an agreement or the possibility of alternative methods of resolving the dispute.

In recent years, the country has implemented complex measures to liberalize criminal penalties, to further strengthen the guarantee of the rights and freedoms of citizens in judicial and investigative activities.

In particular, the Institute for the return of criminal proceedings to further investigation was abolished, the type of criminal punishment in the form of imprisonment was terminated, and the possibility of replacing it with alternative types of punishment not related to imprisonment was expanded. All cases in the case were thoroughly investigated by the court, which laid the foundation for an impartial assessment of the evidence, resulting in an increase in acquittal sentences.