After five months' pre-trial detention and at the end of a seven-week trial, a Tashkent court jailed the 51-year-old Muslim scholar and blogger Alisher Tursunov (Mubashir Ahmad) on 8 October for two-and-a-half years. The judge also ordered all his online sites closed. Uchteppa District Prosecutor Erkin Narzullayev had demanded a seven-year prison term and a heavy fine. Tursunov chose not to appeal and was taken to a labour camp in Navoi Region in early November to begin serving his sentence.

Officials at Uchteppa District Prosecutor's Office did not answer the phone each time Forum 18 called (see below).

The regime had extradited Tursunov from Turkey in May and had held him in pre-trial detention since then (see below).

Tursunov is well-known as the founder of Azon.uz, which had an online television and radio channel, as well as pages on social media, covering news and comments from a Muslim perspective. He was forced to close these sites under regime pressure (see below).

"In Ahmad's case, it appears that the state is more interested in shutting down his platform than harshly punishing him with imprisonment," a journalist who writes as Madina Amin wrote in The Diplomat. "Apart from the two-and-a-half year sentence, the court also ordered the closure of the Azon Global portal and all of Ahmad's personal social media pages. The charges were based only on a couple of pages of material, and yet the punishment wipes away all of the work done by Ahmad and his team" (see below).

Local people following Tursunov's case expressed surprise when they heard that he did not appeal. "We were really surprised that he did not appeal, but we are sure that he was pressured by the investigators not to appeal," one individual told Forum 18. "And he did not appeal fearing that the authorities could give him more severe punishment" (see below).

On 6 October, Samarkand City Criminal Court found Shia Muslim Anvar Aliyev guilty on charges of "Production, storage, distribution or display of materials containing a threat to public security and public order". The charges related to a Telegram group where members discussed their Shia faith. The Judge handed Aliyev a suspended four-year prison sentence. Aliyev was released from police custody the same day in the Court room (see below).

Aliyev remains under tight restrictions. "He is only allowed to work across his house on the same street in Samarkand in a car repair shop," Shia Muslims told Forum 18 (see below).

On 29 October, a Tashkent city court fined another Muslim, Gayrat Ziyakhojayev, for reposting a video on his Facebook account of a sermon by an officially-approved Imam of the state-controlled Muftiate (Muslim Board). The court fined him about one month's average wage in Tashkent (see below).

During the investigation, Investigator Sherbek Turakulov showed him a Religious Affairs Committee "expert analysis" which said "nothing in the content of the material published by me on 12 May was extremist or violated the Law", Ziyakhojayev told Forum 18. Investigator Turakulov told Ziyakhojayev: "It doesn't matter whether the religious materials are legal or illegal, you have to get the permission of the organs before publishing them". Turakulov refused to talk to Forum 18 (see below).

Regime's religious censorship system

The regime strictly controls all religious literature and materials, whether in printed form or online. Article 10 of the Religion Law specifies that import into Uzbekistan, production, distribution and publication of books and religious materials in Uzbekistan without prior permission from the authorities is forbidden.

Cabinet of Ministers Decree No. 180 of 14 April 2022, signed by Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, sets out the way the religious censorship operates. This decrees that religious materials can be published only after prior "expert analysis" by State Religious Affairs Committee "experts".

Hojiakbar Nosirov, a 25-year-old consumer rights activist from Tashkent, posted a video on social media in April 2023 declaring that the red colouring agent carmine he had found in locally-sold yoghurt is haram (forbidden) for Muslims. Police investigated and commissioned an "expert analysis" from the regime's Religious Affairs Committee that claimed Nosirov had expressed "enmity, intolerance or discord". A 3-minute closed online trial jailed him for 15 days.

In March 2021, a Samarkand court fined Shia Muslim Rashid Ibrahimov, who fled Uzbekistan and now lives abroad, for carrying Shia religious material on his mobile phone. (Ibrokhim Ibrahimov, a brother of Rashid, was among four Samarkand Shia Muslims https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=3001">given short jail terms in May 2025.)

Officials warned Shia Muslims in Bukhara and Samarkand in June 2021 "not to publish religious materials on their social media". One human rights defender stated that "after the warning many deleted their accounts, or deleted religious materials".

The Cabinet of Ministers Decree requires all imported religious literature also to be submitted to the Religious Affairs Committee. If it approves the literature for distribution, it requires it to be marked with stickers with a hologram provided by the Committee.

"Materials imported into the territory of Uzbekistan by religious organisations must be marked with a hologram after receiving a positive conclusion," an attachment to the Decree notes. "Materials that have not received a positive conclusion and are not marked with a hologram are prohibited from being imported into the territory of Uzbekistan."

Bringing in literature from abroad even in personal luggage remains dangerous, members of various religious Communities told Forum 18 in November on condition of anonymity for fear of state reprisals.

"We do not even try to bring religious books with us from abroad since we know the border officials will confiscate them and we can get into trouble for this," a Christian told Forum 18 in November.

Several Protestants told Forum 18 they have "not seen in practice the special stickers the State Religious Affairs Committee are supposed to place on Bibles or other Christian books we use. So it is risky to even use our Bibles without the stickers."

An independent journalist, who writes under the name Madina Amin, notes the reduction in controls on religious materials after the death of President Islam Karimov in 2016. "For a time, religious voices operated more openly, and independent media platforms had more space to grow," she wrote in The Diplomat on 24 October. "But this period of relative openness did not last. Over the past few years, there has been a clear shift back toward tighter state control, with growing restrictions on freedom of speech and religious expression."

Muslim scholar and blogger extradited from Turkey

Alisher Ahmadovich Tursunov (born 1 January 1974), who was also known under the religious pseudonym Mubashir Ahmad, is a Muslim scholar and blogger. He was the founder of Azon.uz, which had an online television and radio channel, as well as pages on social media, covering news and comments from a Muslim perspective.

In June 2021, journalists and editors from Azon.uz and Kun.uz were fined for publishing articles on religious themes without Religious Affairs Committee permission. Azon.uz abruptly closed without explanation and deleted all its online platforms in August 2023.

Tursunov fled to Turkey in autumn 2023, where he started Azon Global website. Uzbekistan declared him wanted on criminal charges and he was added at Uzbekistan's request to Russia's Federal Wanted List. (Russia removed him from the Wanted List after his arrest.)

In December 2023, the Turkish authorities detained Tursunov. They released him in February 2024 as they did not find he had violated Turkish law.

However, at Uzbekistan's insistence, Turkish police again detained Tursunov at his home in Istanbul on the morning of 8 May 2025.

"He was initially expected to be transferred to a deportation centre and released on 9 May. However, for several days we had no information on his whereabouts or condition," Ibrahim Ergin, Tursunov's lawyer in Istanbul, informed on the telegram channel "Mubassir Ahmad", an Uzbek news web resource, Fergana.news reported on 13 May.

According to Lawyer Ergin, Tursunov was first held in a migration centre in the Turkish city of Edirne. Soon he was brought back to Istanbul and then deported to Uzbekistan without "due legal process".

Uzbekistan's Interior Ministry announced on 10 May that Tursunov had been extradited to Uzbekistan that day.

Tashkent court jails Tursunov

Prosecutors handed the case against Alisher Tursunov to Tashkent City's Uchteppa District Criminal Court. The case was assigned to Judge Bobir Rakhimov. The trial began on 19 August, according to court records. Uchteppa District prosecutor, Erkin Narzullayev, demanded a seven-year prison term and a heavy fine.

At the final hearing on 8 October, Judge Rakhimov found Tursunov guilty under three Criminal Code Articles:
- Article 156, Part 2 ("Deliberate acts intended to humiliate ethnic honour and dignity, insult the religious or atheistic feelings of individuals, carried out with the purpose of inciting hatred, intolerance, or divisions on a national, ethnic, racial, or religious basis, as well as the explicit or implicit limitation of rights or preferences on the basis of national, racial, or ethnic origin, or religious beliefs");
- Article 244-1, Part 3, Point 4 ("Production, storage, distribution or display of materials containing a threat to public security and public order");
- and Article 244-3 ("Illegal production, storage, import or distribution of religious literature").

Judge Rakhimov handed down a prison sentence of two years and six months. He reduced the sentence because of mitigating factors, including Tursunov's health.

Aziz Abidov, Press-Secretary of Uzbekistan's Supreme Court was quoted by the state-sponsored media on 8 October as saying that Tursunov will serve his sentence in a general regime prison.

Officials at Uchteppa District Prosecutor's Office did not answer the phone each time Forum 18 called on 19 November.

"In Ahmad's case, it appears that the state is more interested in shutting down his platform than harshly punishing him with imprisonment," the journalist who writes as Madina Amin wrote in The Diplomat on 24 October. "Apart from the two-and-a-half year sentence, the court also ordered the closure of the Azon Global portal and all of Ahmad's personal social media pages. The charges were based only on a couple of pages of material, and yet the punishment wipes away all of the work done by Ahmad and his team."

Why did Tursunov not appeal?

Alisher Tursunov chose not to appeal against his sentence, his lawyer Abdulloh Sodiq announced on 22 October. His sentence then came into force.

Local people following Tursunov's case, who asked not to be named, expressed surprise when they heard that he did not appeal. "We were really surprised that he did not appeal, but we are sure that he was pressured by the investigators not to appeal," one individual told Forum 18. "And he did not appeal fearing that the authorities could give him more severe punishment."

The authorities transferred Tursunov to Kyzylteppa prison in Navoi Region in early November to begin serving his sentence. Phones at the prison went unanswered each time Forum 18 called on 19 November.

Tursunov's prison address:

Uzbekistan
Navoi viloyati
Kyzylteppa tumani
5-sonli Jazoni ijro etish bulimi

Samarkand court hands Shia Muslim Anvar Aliyev 4-year suspended sentence

On 14 July, Samarkand City Police arrested 35-year-old Shia Muslim Anvar Aliyev. State Security Service (SSS) secret police investigators then opened a criminal case against him on charges of "Production, storage, distribution or display of materials containing a threat to public security and public order" when carried out by a group (Criminal Code Article 244-1, Part 3, Point 4). The charges related to a Telegram group where members discussed their Shia faith.

Aliyev was kept in police custody until the trial.

Judge Zhamshid Ibragimov of Samarkand City Criminal Court found Aliyev guilty on 6 October under Criminal Code Article 244-1, Part 3, Point 4, according to court records. Judge Ibragimov handed Aliyev a suspended four-year prison sentence. Aliyev was released from police custody the same day in the Court room.

Aliyev did not appeal against his conviction.

Officials at Samarkand City Court, including Judge Ibragimov, did not answer their phones each time Forum 18 called on 19 November.

Aliyev under house arrest

Anvar Aliyev's four-year suspended sentence means he will be under house arrest for the following three years and nine months from the date of the conviction, Shia Muslims from Samarkand explained to Forum 18 in early October.

"In theory he should be released from prison after roughly three years and nine months in July 2029, since he was in secret police pre-trial detention for almost three months," Shia Muslims told Forum 18.

"Normally one day in pre-trial detention is counted as two days in prison according to Uzbek Law, but we don't know why Judge Ibragimov counted this time as three months instead of six," they explained.

Aliyev remains under tight restrictions. "He is only allowed to work across his house on the same street in Samarkand in a car repair shop."

Aliyev was "already once warned after he was released to house arrest because he took a short walk a couple of hundred metres from his house. The Police immediately called and told him not to do so again in future, otherwise he will be given a stricter punishment."

Tashkent court fines Muslim for publishing sermon by officially-approved Imam

A Tashkent city court fined another Muslim, Gayrat Ziyakhojayev, for reposting a video on his Facebook account of a sermon by an Imam, Hasankhon Yahyo Abdulmajid. The authorities recognise him as an official Imam of the state-controlled Muftiate (Muslim Board), and he regularly publishes materials on Youtube and a Telegram channel.

Judge Anvar Dustmurodov of Shoykhontohur District Criminal Court found Ziyakhojayev guilty on 29 October under Administrative Code Article 184-2 ("Illegal production, storage, or import into Uzbekistan, with the intent to distribute or actual distribution, of religious materials"). The Judge fined him 8,240,000 Soms. This represents about one month's average wage in Tashkent.

State religious experts' permission needed to publish any religious materials

Investigator Senior Lieutenant Sherbek Turakulov questioned Gayrat Ziyakhojayev on 24 October at Tashkent's Shoykhontohur District Police, Ziyakhojayev told Forum 18. The Investigator showed him the "expert analysis" of the State Religious Affairs Committee from 19 September, which said, "nothing in the content of the material published by me on 12 May was extremist or violated the Law".

Investigator Turakulov told Ziyakhojayev: "It doesn't matter whether the religious materials are legal or illegal, you have to get the permission of the organs before publishing them."

Judge Dustmurodov's decision (seen by Forum 18) indicates that Ziyakhojayev violated the requirements of the April 2022 Cabinet of Ministers Decree No. 180. This decrees that religious materials can be published only after prior "expert analysis" by State Committee "experts" (see above).

Investigator Turakulov answered his phone on 19 November, but after Forum 18 introduced itself he put the phone down. He did not answer multiple calls to his phone later on the same day.

Officials at Shoykhontohur District Court did not answer the phone each time Forum 18 called on 19 November.

Police found Islamic materials on Ziyakhojayev's phone in 2017. In June 2018, Tashkent's Uchteppa District Criminal Court – in his absence - convicted him for possessing Muslim texts he had downloaded from a website officially allowed in Uzbekistan and sharing them with his friends. Although the court convicted Ziyakhojayev and gave him a criminal record, it freed him from punishment. In a secret hearing in August 2018, Uzbekistan's Supreme Court rejected his appeal against his criminal conviction. (END)

More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Uzbekistan

For background information, see Forum 18's Uzbekistan religious freedom survey

Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments

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