Real Sanjik case: Sanjar Karimov presents new evidence, court investigation begins anew

“Real Sanjik” case: Sanjar Karimov presents new evidence, court investigation resumes

The appeal trial in the Tashkent City Court on the criminal case against businessman Sanjar Karimov, known as blogger “Real Sanjik”, has been postponed indefinitely. This was reported by the “Daryo” correspondent.

After the court negotiations, the defendant’s last words were heard at the next court session. At the court session, an audio recording of a conversation between Sanjar Karimov and his lawyer with the victim Feruza Rahmatullayeva and her husband was presented to the jury as evidence. Since it was necessary to study this audio recording and the evidence presented to the court by the defendant’s lawyers and give them a legal assessment, the jury issued a ruling to resume the court investigation in this part and postponed the court session for an indefinite period.

As explained by the press secretary of the Tashkent City Court, Tursunali Akbarov, the relevance of the evidence presented in the case will be clarified during the judicial investigation.

“The judicial investigation has ended, the negotiations have ended, and in the end, the defendant had the last word. During this process, the defendant and his lawyers presented certain evidence, citing arguments that, from their point of view, may be significant in the case. Therefore, the relevance, importance, and legal force of the evidence presented by the lawyers and the defendant to the case will be considered during the judicial investigation, and a legal assessment will be made at the end,” said the head of the press service of the capital’s court.

Victim Feruza Rahmatullayeva stressed the need to re-conduct the investigative processes.

"I am participating in Sanjar Karimov's trial as a victim under Article 112 of the Criminal Code (threat of murder or violence). Now they brought an audio recording. Why did they bring it at the end? He took us to his office and recorded the conversation, saying, "This is what you say." But I have the recording before that. I will also present it to the court. In general, I would like everything to be re-investigated and to be fair," said the victim.

Sanjar Karimov's lawyer Oybek Ashurov answered why the last evidence - the audio recording - was presented to the court at the time of the final statement.

“Due to the fact that Sanjar Karimov’s mobile phone was in the United States, and there were some difficulties in bringing it here, we presented these audio recordings to the court late, and the court found it necessary to re-examine them. The reason is that, as I said last time, any evidence presented to the court session must be discussed during the court investigation. It cannot be included in the criminal case without being discussed,” the defense attorney said.

When asked “what information is in the audio recording?”, the defendant Sanjar Karimov replied: “It says that I was not threatened. It really says that Rahmatullayeva is deceiving. I hope that everything will be considered fairly.”

It was announced that the parties would be provided with additional information about the next court session.

It should be recalled that on May 8, the Mirzo Ulugbek District Criminal Court found Sanjar Karimov guilty of fraud, intimidation with murder or violence, and crimes related to drugs, and sentenced him to 5 years in prison and a fine of 410 BHM. Sanjar Karimov expressed dissatisfaction with the sentence and appealed to a higher instance.