A 29-year-old man in Tashkent has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for beating his live-in partner's 5-month-old baby to death.
According to court documents, the man returned home intoxicated and fell asleep, only to be woken up by the baby's crying. The woman was not at home at the time. Her absence and failure to answer her phone angered the man; in court, he testified that he suspected she had gone to meet another man, which provoked feelings of jealousy and rage.
He then struck the incessantly crying baby several times and shook the infant repeatedly by the neck and shoulders. Afterward, he placed the baby in a stroller and left to go to a store. Upon returning home, the woman found the child in critical condition and called an ambulance, but doctors at the hospital pronounced the baby dead.
A forensic medical examination determined that the cause of death was a traumatic brain injury and cerebral hemorrhage. In court, the woman stated that she had visited an acquaintance at the time of the incident, that her phone was switched off due to a malfunction, and that she had left the baby in the man's care. The court found the man guilty of the intentional murder of a person in a helpless state and sentenced him to 16 years of imprisonment.
