Saida Mirziyoyeva, photo from the official Telegram channel.
Saida Mirziyoyeva, head of Uzbekistan’s Presidential Administration, has called for the death penalty for particularly grave sexual crimes against children following an alleged assault on a five-year-old girl at a kindergarten in Namangan region.
“For such monstrous crimes, in my opinion, the death penalty should indeed be applied. Unfortunately, the current law does not provide for it,” she wrote on September 27 on her official Telegram channel. She said she had instructed the relevant authorities to prepare legislative proposals that would impose the harshest possible penalties.
According to UzNews, the suspect is the kindergarten’s warehouse manager. He has been taken into custody, and a criminal case has been opened under Part 4 of Article 118 of Uzbekistan’s Criminal Code, concerning the rape of a child under 14. The publication later reported that he also faces a charge under Part 1 of Article 112, concerning threats to kill or use violence.
Uzbekistan’s Children’s Ombudsman is monitoring the case and has urged the media and social media users not to spread unverified information that could violate the child’s rights and dignity.
Mirziyoyeva said those whose negligence left the child unprotected should also be held accountable. “The criminal will receive the harshest possible punishment. As will all those who allowed this to happen, showed negligence and failed to protect the child,” she wrote.
The girl’s mother told Gazeta.uz that her daughter had become afraid of the kindergarten after the alleged assault. She also said the facility’s surveillance cameras were not working and that the suspect’s relatives had offered her money to withdraw her complaint. These are the mother’s allegations; the investigation is ongoing.
The Ministry of Preschool and School Education announced on September 26 that it had formed a special working group to examine the incident. The Prosecutor General’s Office reported the opening of a criminal case the same day. The child and her mother are receiving psychological, medical and legal assistance.
Uzbek law does not currently provide for the death penalty.
