new passenger train Bukhara-Samarkand-Bukhara [central Uzbekistan], which is to run from Kagan railway station, has served its first passengers. It will leave Bukhara at 0400 [2300 gmt] every morning and in six hours arrive in Samarkand. The new route is convenient not only for the residents of Samarkand and Bukhara, but also people from neighbouring Navoi Region.

he birth rate in Uzbekistan fell by 3 per cent in 1999 on the previous year and was 22.3 per 1,000 people against 23 in 1998. The number of new-borns went down 1.8 per cent last year on 1998, `Biznes-Vestnik Vostoka' newspaper reported on 4th May. It said the number of deaths fell in 1999 on the previous year by 7.2 per cent, and the death rate was registered at 5.3 deaths per 1,000 people against 5.8 in 1998. The natural population growth in 1999 was 413,500, and by 1st January 2000 Uzbekistan had a population of 24.6m people, the newspaper said.

resident Islam Karimov, met the special envoy of the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Adeli this week. Speaking about the aims of his visit, as well as about the cooperation between the two countries, the special envoy of the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr Mohammad Adeli, said the following, amongst other things:

The aim of my visit to your country is to pass on warm greetings from the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, [Seyyed Mohammad] Khatami, to President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov; and, secondly, to convey the Iranian president's personal invitation to the forthcoming summit of member states of the international Economic Cooperation Organization. As you know, currently Iran is presiding over the work of the Economic Cooperation Organization. That is why the next summit meeting will be held in Teheran on 10th June this year.

Meetings about the cooperation between the two countries are be held and appropriate documents signed during the Uzbek president's forthcoming visit to Teheran, Mr Mohammad Adeli went on. The sides are also expected to outline the main areas of the third meeting of the Iranian-Uzbek intergovernmental joint commission, which will be held in Tashkent. We believe that the Uzbek president's visit to Tehran will play an important role in further developing the cooperation between Uzbekistan and Teheran, the special envoy of the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr Mohammad Adeli, said in conclusion.

ussia and Uzbekistan face the same problems, Uzbek President Islam Karimov told the press in Tashkent today. They have the need for security and stability and face battles with international terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and organized crime in common, he said.

There is nothing extraordinary about the Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming visit to Uzbekistan, Karimov said. "This is a continuation of our contacts. I expect such meetings to be regular."

"These contacts are part of a process that began last December, when Putin visited Uzbekistan in his capacity as prime minister," Karimov noted.

There has been no official information on Putin's visit but "speculation is already rife," he said.

"The creeping expansion of religious extremism is a threat to everybody. It is important that this danger be understood. Fighting this threat should unite those countries that want to stop the spread of this evil," Karimov said.

When terrorist groups infiltrated Kyrgyzstan, "not everybody saw the true danger of the invasion, which appeared to be a reconnaissance mission, testing the abilities of the countries in the region. Those forces are planning for a scaled up replay," he said.

Russia is prepared to provide aid if Uzbekistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity is threatened, Karimov said. "Russia is well aware of the fact that the threat has taken on an international scale," he said.

Since Russia and Uzbekistan established diplomatic relations in 1992, more than 150 documents, in particular concerning cooperation in the fields of finance, culture, science, technology, education, information, sports, tourism and economic integration have been signed, an Uzbek Foreign Ministry official noted today.

During Putin's December 1998 visit, the Russian-Uzbek treaty "On expanded cooperation in defence and supply of defensive hardware" was signed, as were numerous documents on cooperation in customs control and the exchange of information.

ttending the opening ceremony of a memorial complex in the Uzbek capital devoted to the victims of Soviet repressions, Uzbek President Islam Karimov said in an excerpt from a speech broadcast live on the radio:

"I say once again, just now, all these things we are doing to achieve our set goals, first of all signify that we appreciate that we are Muslims through and through, with a Muslim state and with Muslim ancestors. Therefore we are fulfilling our duty as Muslims before them [those who died], and we bow our heads before them and ask Allah to bless their spirits."

The president also recalled the courage displayed by the people of Uzbekistan in the course of their struggle for freedom and said: "It is enough to remember especially the outrages committed in 1937-1953, when 100,000 people were subjected to repressions throughout Uzbekistan and 13,000 of them were executed by firing squad, including representatives of almost all nationalities and ethnic groups living in our country."

he divorce rate went down in Uzbekistan in 1999 to 0.4 per 1,000 people against 0.6 in 1998. A total of 10,800 divorces were registered last year, 3,800 fewer than a year earlier, `Biznes-Vestnik Vostoka' newspaper reported on 4th May.

The divorce rate in the capital, Tashkent, was 1.3, the highest in the country. The number of marriages went up 4.8 per cent in 1999 on the previous year - a total of 178,700 marriages were registered in the country in 1999.

ussian President Vladimir Putin is to pay a two-day visit to Uzbekistan next week, official sources in Tashkent told the ITAR-TASS correspondent on May 11. The source said the timetable for the visit includes talks between Vladimir Putin and President Islam Karimov both on a "one to one" basis and with others present.

delegation of one of the largest financial institutions of Germany, representatives of KfW [Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau] bank held talks in Uzbekistan.

The three-day visit of the representatives of the German bank to Uzbekistan started on 9th May. On 9th May, they visited Khorezm Region. The main meetings of the German bankers, however, will take place on 10th and 11th May. They had meetings at the Cabinet of Ministers and other government agencies as well.

One such a meeting was held at the Ministry for Foreign Economic Relations. Above all, the [Uzbek] minister of health also attended the meeting to welcome the German bankers, the reason is that a ceremony of signing an agreement on allocating Uzbekistan a grant worth DM5m took place before the meeting. Reports say that this grant will be used to fight against TB in Khorezm and the Aral Sea area.

delegation of the permanent commission of the Canadian parliament for international relations and foreign trade visited Uzbekistan.

Diane Marleau heads the work of the lower chamber of the Canadian parliament dealing with legislation and international affairs. Members of the delegation who are on their first visit to Uzbekistan were received at the [Uzbek] Supreme Assembly. They were familiarized with the work of the republic's parliament. They were also familiarized with the work of parliamentary Committee for International Affairs and Interparliamentary Relations, tasks of ombudsman, the Human Rights Commissioner of the Uzbek Supreme Assembly, as well as with economic and social reforms being carried out in recent years in independent Uzbekistan.

Diane Marleau said the main purpose of the visit was to regulate interparliamentary relations, to develop bilateral trade, economic and social relations. The sides exchanged views on issues of mutual interest.

mnesty International took up the cases of the two young Uzbek pop-musicians, Arsen Arutyunyan (20) and his co-accused Danis Sirazhev (24), after they had been sentenced to death on the base of confessions. They were accused of the killing of Uzbek singer Laylo Alieva in April 1998. In April 2000 the Uzbek authorities informed Amnesty International that Arsen Arutyunyan's death sentence had been reversed to fifteen years' imprisonment. Now Danis Sirazhev's sentence has been reversed to imprisonment.

Early report about Arsen's case

The recent reversal of the death sentence passed last year on a young musician is a significant move forward. The Uzbekistan authorities should now continue further down the road to total abolition by commuting all other pending death sentences, Amnesty International urged.

On 31 March the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan reversed the death sentence passed last year on a young musician named Arsen Arutyunyan, citing mitigating factors and replacing it with a term of imprisonment. Amnesty International had been campaigning for such a reversal or commutation, and the news was passed to its Deputy Secretary General at a United Nations conference on 14 April. This was confirmed by the Uzbekistan authorities.

"We greatly welcome this step, and hope that Uzbekistan will live up to its promises to `abolish the death penalty in stages` and commute all pending death sentences," said Vincent Del Buono, Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International.

"Of course we have every sympathy with the victims of crime, but we believe the death penalty itself to be a violation of the internationally recognized right -- the right to life."

Arsen Arutyunyan and Danis Sirazhev, musicians in a well-known Uzbek pop group called "Al- Vakil", had been sentenced to death on 3 November last year after being convicted of killing a female Uzbek singer, Laylo Aliyeva, the previous year. Amnesty International is seeking to learn whether Danis Sirazhev`s sentence has also been reviewed, and if so what the outcome was.

Unofficial sources had expressed great concern about all stages of the case. The two men alleged that their confessions had been extracted under duress while they were in pre-trial detention, their lawyers reportedly received threats aimed at forcing them to step down from the case, their families were allegedly harassed forcing some to leave the country. Unofficial observers reported that the first appeal hearing at the Supreme Court was unfair.

In 1998 the Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights in Uzbekistan, Sayora Rashidova, informed Amnesty International that Uzbekistan was following "a policy of abolishing the death penalty by stages". Since then Amnesty International has learned of at least 47 death sentences and 15 executions in Uzbekistan. However, as information on the death penalty is regarded as a state secret, the real number of those sentenced to death and executed may be much higher (at its session in November last year the UN Committee against Torture requested, but did not receive, such statistical information from the government delegation of Uzbekistan).

"The Uzbek authorities should build on the reversal of Arsen Arutyunyan`s death sentence to enter a new stage with regard to their policy on abolition," Amnesty International urged. "Such steps would be consistent with the worldwide trend towards abolition of the death penalty."

Specifically, the human rights organization is urging the Uzbek authorities to declare a moratorium on death sentences and executions, commute all pending death sentences to terms of imprisonment, and ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -- the first international instrument aimed at abolition of the death penalty.

Background

Nearly half the countries of the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice for all but the most exceptional crimes, such as serious crimes committed during a state of war. Among the Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union, for example, Kyrgyzstan has had a moratorium on executions in place since 1998, and Turkmenistan abolished the death penalty completely in December last year.

Amnesty International believes the death penalty is inherently unjust and arbitrary, however heinous the crime for which it is provided and however scrupulous the procedure by which it is enforced. The risk of error in applying the death penalty is inescapable, yet the penalty is irrevocable. In addition, the death penalty has never been shown to deter crime more effectively than other punishments, and is brutalizing to all those involved in its application.

zbekistan marks May 9 as "the Day of Memory and Homage" for the second year in a row under the presidential decree.

More than 1.5 million residents of Uzbekistan, people of different nationalities, took part in the Second World War and 300 of them were given the Hero of the Soviet Union title. Sixty residents of Uzbekistan were full holders of the Glory Orders. About 60,000 war veterans live in Uzbekistan now.

President Islam Karimov and other leaders of Uzbekistan visited the memorial in the center of Tashkent to lay flowers on Tuesday. "We will do everything to lengthen the life of our veterans," the President said.

The celebrations ended in 21 fireworks.

zbek President Islam Karimov said there was no need for a military parade to mark the anniversary of the end of the Second World War today. Speaking to journalists after a ceremony in the Tashkent Remembrance Square, marking the Day of Memory and Honour, which last year replaced the Soviet Victory Day, Karimov said it was better to use the money, which could be spent on a military parade, to restore and preserve the memory of the victims of the war.

As broadcast by Uzbek radio, Karimov said: Today we are bowing to the blessed memory of our fathers and grandfathers who died during the Second World War and those who lost their children and relatives during this war. Every nation should first of all respect its ancestors. There is a deep meaning behind the celebration of the Day of Memory and Honour - we should not forget those people who died for our happiness and tranquillity. I would like to say that remembrance means not only remembering those people but thinking about our present. We should not repeat mistakes of the past. We should never return to them again.

I think we do not need to carry out various military parades today as many other countries are doing. The most important thing today is to remember our fathers and glorify them. All the money which is being spent on parades should be, first of all, spent on the restoration of the blessed memory of all the victims of the war and all those who died for our independence. I think that many people will understand this correctly. And this will be a good lesson for our younger generations.

zbek President Islam Karimov told Indian businessmen in Delhi on 2nd May that in order to maximize the potential for trade and cooperation with India, Uzbekistan should join the trade agreement signed between India, Iran and Turkmenistan and import goods from India via the Iranian port of Bandar-e Abbas and then by rail through Serakhs and Turkmenistan. Uzbekistan, he said would be solving "the problems over cash convertibility this year and next" and called for a joint Indian-Uzbek business insurance company to reduce risk for businessmen operating in the Uzbek market. He said Uzbekistan could benefit from India's experience in cotton processing, textiles and computer technology, and urged Indian jewellers to come to Uzbekistan to take advantage of its gem stones. The following are excerpts from a special 75-minute programme on Karimov's visit to India broadcast on Uzbek TV on 4th May, adding to previous reports:

[Karimov, voice in Russian; ellipses indicate Karimov's changes of thought] Every time we come to your wonderful country.. We have... I would like to express it briefly... We are in a good mood.. In India we see a natural partner and a potential ally. I would like to stress that this relates not only to political and diplomatic relations, but first of all, this relates to the issues of cooperation in the sphere of the economy and business development. We have had very fruitful meetings with Indian leaders, to be precise with the president of India, the prime minister and the vice president, the minister for foreign affairs and with some representatives of the Indian government. In other words I should say that as a result of our negotiations we came to very effective suggestions. And we should work on these.

For journalists I would like to say that we share common stands and in fact common opinions... there is a great need for... demand for us to consolidate our efforts to maintain security and stability and to combat the creeping expansion of religious and political extremism and international terrorism.

We signed nine documents, including a declaration on the principles of cooperation between India and Uzbekistan in the key spheres of our joint activity. I think that all these things which I have been telling you are the basis or the foundation upon which we should build our economic relations and cooperation in the sphere of commerce, business and cooperation in the key branches of our industry, in other words, in those spheres where we will derive similar benefits. Today Uzbekistan has already achieved macroeconomic stabilization. In fact Uzbekistan is the only state in the CIS which has absolutely positive indices in the economy.

I would like to say two words about privatization. I know that in India there are discussions under way about how to carry out and intensify the privatization process. I would like to explain how we understand the privatization process. We do not think that privatization should be carried out using vouchers. And it should not be such... as it is accepted to call... it should not be nationwide. Privatization should not be the basic source for replenishment of the budget. First of all, we understand privatization to be a change in the form of ownership. I understand this very well. And I would like to tell you that for many years I worked in the system of the State Planning Committee and the Ministry of Finance. I understand very well what the change of the form of ownership means. In fact state property is property which belongs to nobody. And the state officials, who administer this state property, are responsible for nothing. Therefore the final goal of our privatization is a multi-profile economy. Forty per cent of the profits from the sale of state property belongs to the budget and 25 per cent belongs to enterprises to replenish their working capital and modernize their production. Another 25 per cent are used for developing the sphere of small and medium business.

We pay great attention to developing the banking system. We also posed the banking system the tasks of privatization, denationalization and attracting of foreign investments. The second trend is the capitalization of banks. Banks have the task of increasing their capital funds and working capital. The third task of our banks is that they should not be only a payment organization, but also a partner for small and medium businesses and for enterpreneurship as a whole. Banks should be just as responsible as businessmen for developing small and medium businesses.

About convertibility. I should say that we have our own views on the convertibility process. There are the notions of cash convertibility and non-cash convertibility. We have no problems with non-cash transfer convertibility. But there are problems with cash convertibility. What does this mean? This means that we somehow restrict the consumer market. Thus the importing of consumer goods is restricted and all our resources are used to purchase new technologies and new equipment. Only this way enables us to develop exports in Uzbekistan and to produce competitive goods. We will solve the problems over cash convertibility this year and next.

I have already told you that Uzbekistan's budget is pretty stable. And I think there is no need to seek to profit from the foreign businessmen who work in Uzbekistan's market. There is no need for this kind of thing today. The important thing for me is that they should come to work in Uzbekistan and look towards the future with confidence. A state will not become rich if it, for example, takes taxes from you. We do not need these taxes. Do keep them for yourselves and do work!

In all 200 major projects worth a total of over 10bn dollars are being implemented in Uzbekistan. In 200 alone... We have one investment project which has been approved by the government, in line with which 1.4bn dollars of foreign investments are to be put to use. At present there are 25 Uzbek-Indian joint ventures operating in Uzbekistan. And eight of these companies operate on Indian capital alone, primarily in developing the pharmaceutical sector, light industry and consumer services.

Yes, in fact we are not satisfied with the commodity circulation between India and Uzbekistan. In 1999 it was 39m dollars. What hinders the development of commodity circulation and the development of joint ventures using Indian capital? The first basic problem which I think hinders the development of commodity circulation and the development of our contacts is the development of market spheres or the spheres of market services. In fact the Indian capital business sphere in Uzbekistan is not being served anything or anybody. I mean that there are no Uzbek-Indian banks or in general, branches of Indian banks. Which Indian bank will cooperate with us? I would like to ask you, representatives of the Federation, which Indian bank will work with us in order to increase commodity circulation and develop trade relations with India? For any businessman, first of all, this means getting guaranteed profit. The second thing, I think, is that we should create an insurance company, a joint insurance company which will guarantee exports and imports. Without such a company development of trading relations is out of the question.

The Federation is a strong and prestigious organization dominant in India. Could you tell me, can we create a joint insurance company and to supply it with working capital. I am ready, on behalf of the [Uzbek] government, to supply it with working capital in order to give guarantees for any Indian businessman who comes to Uzbekistan's market, in order to give him guaranteed risk protection. This is the compulsory condition for any kind of business! It is out of the question to work in any market without insurance! We, Uzbekistan, suggest establishing a joint insurance, a joint protection of Indian capital if it comes to Uzbekistan.

The next problem hindering commodity circulation between us is communications. The world is very big. India is located not far from Uzbekistan, from Central Asia. It takes two hours and 45 minutes by air. But there are mountains so high that it is impossible to build a railway or roads. In other words, you can shout to each other more easily than build a road. But I think there is a way out here. The simplest way out is to deliver goods from Bombay and other sea ports of India to Bandar-e Abbas, which is located on the territory of Iran. From there these goods will be delivered to Turkmenistan. There is a railway there via Serakhs and from there the goods will be delivered to Uzbekistan and to the other states of Central Asia. This is the simpliest and the most efficient way of sending the goods. The only thing is that Uzbekistan should join the trilateral agreement signed between India, Iran and Turkmenistan. I suggest that the Confederation should exercise tough control over these very important routes. This is the most important factor promoting a further increase in commodity circulation between our countries.

Today India is fourth in the world for cotton production and Uzbekistan comes in fifth place. But India processes the bulk of its cotton at home, whilst Uzbekistan exports the bulk of its cotton. India derives an additional product, an additional profit, namely employment. I welcome this business. And we, Uzbekistan come second in the world for cotton export. And I repeat that only 25 per cent of the cotton is processed in Uzbekistan. I have a simple question: can we use India's experience in order to develop our textile industry and to carry out a deep processing of cotton, using the Indian experience and technologies. I think that India will derive benefit from this busness and certainly Uzbekistan will benefit as well.

I have a second example. I mean the jewellery industry. Uzbekistan is fifth in the world for gold exports and seventh in terms of resources. We have huge resources of precious metals. Your jewellery craftsmen produce samples of jewellery wares. I suggest the following: come to our country, we will create all the necessary conditions for the work of your jewellers in Uzbekistan. You will produce jewellery in Uzbekistan and you will get your profits. Who will hinder you? We have everthing: gold, precious stones and so on. The only thing is that we need your hands, we need your craft. Why don't you want to participate in this kind of business?

Concerning computer technology and software. Yes, we congratulate you all on this. India occupies one of the leading places in the world for computer technologies. We are ready to use your experience and to cooperate with you in order to take advantage of your opportunities for developing computer technology in Uzbekistan.

n organizational meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of 2000 took place in New York on 3rd May at which elections to its commissions were held. The candidacy of the Republic of Uzbekistan proposed to the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice was unanimously supported, and our country was elected a member of ECOSOC for the period 2001-2003.

The election of the Republic of Uzbekistan to that authoritative body confirms the recognition by the world public of the considerable achievements of our young state in the fight against crime, terrorism and the illegal circulation of drugs.

zbekistan intends to invest 1,271m dollars in the next five years in processing cotton fibre, head of the Uzbeklegprom association Batyr Irgashev told an international cotton conference in Tashkent today.

He said 20 operating textile mills are to be modernized and six new cotton-spinning mills built. "While before 1991 Uzbekistan had built only four big textile mills in Tashkent, Bukhara, Andizhan and Fergana, in the past five years it has commissioned nine major cotton-processing facilities," he said.

Among them Irgashev named the 200m-dollar Kabul-Uzbek Co. joint venture uniting two textile mills in Tashkent and Toi-Tepa (Tashkent region). The 16 joint ventures in the industry are responsible for 20.6 per cent of overall commodity production. By the year 2000, 450m dollars in foreign investments had been made in the Uzbek textile industry.

he signing of a credit agreement between the National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity of Uzbekistan and the Eximbank of South Korea opens a new phase in the development of domestic car manufacturing.

An accord on setting up a production line for new models of the car on the basis of the UzDaewoo avto joint venture was reached during a visit by [Uzbek] President Islam Karimov to South Korea, in the course of his meetings with the leaders of the country government and Eximbank. The agreement signed by the National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity has become the practical implementation of these accords. The implementation of the agreement will allow not only the continuation of restructuring the economy of Uzbekistan but it will also contribute to the attraction of credits for the production of goods which will substitute those currently imported and export oriented goods.

The agreement stipulates the allocation of 35.9m dollars to organize the production of "Matiz" cars of a new generation at the UzDaewoo avto joint venture. This credit will be used to instal a production line capable of assembling 60,000 cars annually. All the installation work is expected to be completed by the end of next year. It is worth noting that today Matiz enjoys the same popularity as cars of the same class produced by leading world manufactures. This model has found its buyer even in Japan's over-saturated car market. Apart from that "Matiz" meets "Euro II" international standards which will give Uzbekistan an opportunity to export these cars to Europe.

zbekistan, the world's fifth biggest cotton producer and second largest exporter, aims to develop its textiles industry rapidly over the next five years to add value to exports, an official said on Friday. The impact would be a sharp fall in exports of cotton fibre to world markets, said Batyr Irgashev, head of the Central Asian state's light industry association.

"By fulfilling our plan to process cotton fibre within the republic, we will be increasing our economic potential and creating new jobs," Irgashev told an international cotton conference in the capital Tashkent.

"Uzbekistan is the world's second biggest cotton exporter, but exports will decline over the years as exports of yarn and materials made from the cotton increase."

Cotton accounts for up to 40 percent of Uzbekistan's export earnings, and delegates at the conference said that the ambitious plan to reduce dependence on raw material sales was unlikely to be fulfilled within the timeframe given. Minister for Foreign Economic Relations Elyor Ganiyev said on Thursday that 500,000 tonnes of cotton fibre, just over half the current level of exports, could be processed domestically within five years.

Today's level was 120-150,000 tonnes, he added. But foreign investors have largely avoided the former Soviet republic of 24 million people due to strict foreign exchange restrictions, although companies working in so-called "priority" sectors are given concessions.

Irgashev said companies from South Korea and Japan had already been selected to help it develop the textiles sector. He said the policy was already yielding results, with exports of cotton products rising to an estimated $120 million in 2000 from $86 million in 1998.

Four major plants were built in the last four years, the largest of which could process around 50,000 tonnes per year of cotton fibre, referred to as "white gold" in Uzbekistan. Irgashev forecast total investment in textiles by 2005 at $1.271 billion, with just over half going towards modernising existing plants and the remainder to building new factories.

he Siemens German company has begun to reconstruct the Syr Darya hydro-electric power-station in Uzbekistan, the largest thermal power-station in the Central Asian region.

As a result, its capacity will be increased by 600 megawatt and come to 3,600 MW, Deputy Minister of Power Engineering and Electrification of Uzbekistan Tuichi Akhmedov told Itar-Tass on Saturday. At the same time, he stressed, the harmful effect on the environment will be sharply reduced. The cost of the construction of the hydro-electric power- station amounts to 45 million U.S. dollars.

The Siemens, using a credit extended by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), will carry out the purchase, delivery and assembly of the equipment. The remaining expenses will be made by the Ministry of Power Engineering of the republic.

According to the deputy minister, experts of the ministry worked out a concept of electric and thermal power-stations of the republic till 2010, which envisages the reconstruction of a number of other electric power-stations with the attraction of foreign capitals. He said that it was planned to reconstruct another three hydro-electric power-stations.

court in eastern Uzbek Andizhan Region has passed a death sentence on a man for murder, The Uzbek regional newspaper `Andizhanskaya Pravda' reported on 18th April.

On 27th June last year, two residents of the Region identified as Abduqahhor Abdurazzoqov and Umid Ruzimatov "stole two sewing machines worth 70,000 from a professional college, murdered the night-watchman and set fire to the building in order to cover their traces". Later they sold the stolen sewing machines in a market in neighbouring Namangan Region for 28,000 soms each.

The court sentenced Abdurazzoqov to death and his accomplice Ruzimatov to 20 years of imprisonment. The sentence has been endorsed by the republic's Supreme Court, the report said in conclusion.