Samarkand man who fled Russia-Ukraine war and returned to Uzbekistan through barbed wire sentenced to 5.5 years in prison
A man from Samarkand who fled the Russian-Ukrainian war and returned to Uzbekistan from under a barbed wire fence was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison. The Daryo publication reported this, citing court documents.
As it turned out, M.B., born in 1988 in the Nurabad district, went to Moscow in November 2020 to work and worked as a taxi driver. On March 2, 2021, when he was picking up his Tajik acquaintance D.S. from the Stupino district, police officers stopped them on the road and searched the car. During the search, 109 grams of heroin were found under the back seat of the car.
M.B. was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Kashira District Court of the Moscow Region on May 6, 2022, despite the fact that the drugs belonged to his accomplice. He was held in a colony in Novaya Lyalya, Sverdlovsk Region, until April 2024, and then in a penal institution in Yekaterinburg until September.
According to M.B., during the first year of his imprisonment, prisoners were treated well. However, as the war intensified, pressure increased. According to him, the Russian side offered parole to those who participated in the war against Ukraine. After prolonged pressure, M.B. agreed to this offer and signed a military service contract on September 15, 2024.
After the contract was signed, M.B., along with other prisoners, was taken by military plane to the Rostov Region, and from there to the "Shakhta" district of Lugansk. After 14 days of training in a military unit under the Russian Ministry of Defense, they were sent to the fighting zone in UAZ vehicles.
"During the fighting, I was seriously injured when a mine exploded. They evacuated me and took me to a military hospital in Donetsk. I was treated there until December 8, 2024, and when I had the opportunity, I escaped by taxi," the defendant says.
After that, he contacted a woman named Tamara, asked her to let him stay at her house until he returned to Uzbekistan. When she agreed, he hid in her house until April 2025 and looked for a way back to Uzbekistan. In the meantime, he met a Kazakh man who introduced himself as "Ded" and agreed to take him from Russia to Kazakhstan for $1,800. According to the agreement, a man named Maham and a shepherd took him under the barbed wire fence on the Russian-Kazakh border into Kazakhstan. From there, he crossed the state border in the Jizzakh region outside the checkpoint and entered Uzbekistan under a barbed wire fence. Here, his brother met him and took him to his sister's house in the Parkent district.
After returning to Uzbekistan, M.B. committed acts related to helping several individuals illegally cross the border.
M.B. promised to help another citizen illegally leave Uzbekistan and cross into Russia, asking for $2,000 from him. The two agreed to meet on Rudakiy Street in Samarkand, near the Dinamo sports complex.
On February 6, at around 6:00 p.m., M.B. was detained by officers of the Samarkand regional department of the State Security Service while taking $2,000 and putting it in his jacket pocket.
By a verdict of the Jamboy district court on criminal cases, M.B. He was found guilty of Article 154, Part 1 (recruitment), Article 25, Part 2, Clause "b" of Article 168 (fraud), Article 223, Part 2, Clause "b" (illegal departure abroad or entry into the Republic of Uzbekistan) and Articles 25, Part 2, Clauses "b, v" of Article 223 of the Criminal Code. The sentences imposed on the set of crimes were partially added, and he was sentenced to 5 years and 6 months of continuous imprisonment. It was determined that the sentence will be served in a general regime colony.
Earlier, it was reported that a 22-year-old man from Andijan, who was sentenced to 9 years in prison in Russia, was involved in the war in Ukraine and escaped from a military training ground, was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months of correctional labor.