TASHKENT (Reuters) – A military court in Uzbekistan sentenced 10 defendants to lengthy prison terms for the attempted murder of the former presidential press secretary, the country’s supreme court press service said on Wednesday.
The failed attack on former presidential spokesperson Komil Allamjonov’s car in October last year sparked rumours of a power struggle in the country of 37 million people, amid scant information from the authorities.
The statement named only five of the 10 defendants, who received prison sentences of between seven and 23 years. A senior security services officer and a top interior ministry official were among those sentenced.
The statement said nothing about why Allamjonov was targeted, or who was behind the plot.
Uzbekistan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Its current President Shavkat Mirziyoyev replaced long-serving President Islam Karimov after his death in 2016 and positioned himself as a reformer, opening its economy to the outside world and easing some of the tight political controls of his predecessor.
Weeks before the murder attempt, Allamjonov, a political figure with close ties to the presidential family, announced that he was leaving his post to go into business.
The month after the incident, Mirziyoyev sacked the defence minister, the head of the State Security Service and several high-ranking officials, which some Uzbek media linked to the attempt against Allamjonov’s life.
The case also attracted attention in Russia after Uzbek authorities issued an arrest warrant for two Russian citizens of Chechen origin, and independent Uzbek media suggested that the influential Russian region may have been involved.
In a comment on his Telegram channel, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov denied any involvement in the case, saying: “If I had planned it, I would have got it done.”
(Reporting by Mukhammadsharif Mamatkulov in Tashkent; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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