Uzbek newspaper "Khalq Soz'i"
November 19

A senior Uzbek police officer has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for extortion in the south, the Uzbek newspaper Khalq Sozi reported on 19 November. This came during the ongoing national campaign against corruption and graft among civil servants. S.G. Vohidov, head of the Termez town police department in Surkhandarya Region, was caught extorting just over 400 dollars from a citizen in his own office, the report said.

In another court case, two customs officers in the autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan, northwestern Uzbekistan, were found guilty of accepting a 1,200-dollar bribe in return for allowing two citizens' goods to pass their checkpoint illegally. The convicts, identified as A. Palimbetov and V. Kim, received jail sentences ranging from six to seven years, the newspaper said.

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