A resident of the Namangan region was sentenced to 15 years for recruiting and financing terrorists

Namangan Region Resident Sentenced to 15 Years for Recruiting and Financing Terrorists

A resident of the Pap District of the Namangan Region has been sentenced to 15 years and 2 months in prison for participating in an international terrorist organization, financing militants, and organizing an illegal channel for sending compatriots to Syria. During the investigation, it was established that among those he transported to the combat zone were citizens of Uzbekistan, including women with children under the age of three.

According to the case files, the man began to take an interest in extremist ideas while working in Russia, where he had gone for employment back in 2004. In 2009, together with an accomplice, he opened a "Halal" catering outlet near the Vykhino metro station in Moscow. Underground religious meetings were held in this establishment, where the man watched lectures by the leader of the "Islamic Movement of Turkestan," Tahir Yuldashev, and recruitment videos calling for "jihad."

In September 2010, the man traveled to Iran and then moved to Pakistan. In the North Waziristan region, he joined the international terrorist organization "Jamaat Ansarullah," took an oath of allegiance ("bay'ah") under the pseudonym "Sodiq," and completed a course in military and mine-explosive training at a militant camp.

In September 2012, transiting through Turkey, he moved to the Syrian province of Idlib, where he joined the "Jabhat al-Nusra" group, and from 2013 joined "Katiba Tawhid wal-Jihad" as a supplier. The investigation revealed that at the end of 2020, he opened a bakery in Idlib and regularly transferred 60% of its income — from 250 to 350 dollars a week — to finance the activities of militants.

Later, his activities continued in Turkey, where he moved with his family in September 2021. While in Istanbul, the man maintained ties with the terrorist organizations "Katiba Tawhid wal-Jihad" and "Katiba Guraba." From May to October 2025, together with accomplices, he organized a permanent channel for the illegal smuggling of recruits from Turkey to Syria, receiving from 500 to 1,000 dollars for each smuggled person. Among the individuals he smuggled were dozens of citizens of Uzbekistan, including women with young children, some of whom were not even three years old. During an attempt to smuggle another group of recruits on October 11, 2025, he was detained by Turkish law enforcement agencies.

In addition, using a cargo transportation business as a cover, the man supplied various goods, equipment, and spare parts to militants in Syria. The investigation also established that through the Telegram and WhatsApp messengers under the pseudonym "Abu Asiya," he illegally collected, stored, and transferred to third parties copies of passports, biometric documents, and ID cards of citizens of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

During the investigation, he was charged under several articles of the Criminal Code, including violation of personal data legislation, mercenarism, terrorism, undergoing training for the purpose of terrorist activity, financing terrorism, public calls for a violent change of the constitutional order, creation of a criminal community, and participation in the activities of banned organizations.

The court found the man guilty and, taking into account the totality of the crimes by partial addition of sentences, handed down a final sentence of 15 years and 2 months of imprisonment. The convict will serve his sentence in a general regime colony.