Uzbek 'Narodnoe Slovo' newspaper
November 3
onfiscation of property as a punishment for criminal offences is being abolished following amendments and addenda to Uzbek crime legislation aimed at liberalizing the penalties for crime, the Uzbek Narodnoye Slovo
newspaper reported on 3 November. The law was adopted on 29 August 2001.
"The exclusion of confiscation of property from the system of punishment as a penalty for crime is an important step on the path of democratization and liberalization of crime legislation. The only penalties left are those stipulating withdrawal of property if it is the proceeds of crime or obtained in a criminal way, as well as in those cases when property is used to compensate inflicted damage," the report said.
President Islam Karimov called for the abolition of confiscation of property in an address to parliament on 29 August, saying it was used during Soviet times "to break the person, to put moral pressure on him, to separate him from his family, and the most unfair aspect of that was depriving his family of the main means of existence".