The Charges

The charges against Nodira Khidoyatova* have been announced.

The Prosecutor-General’s Office said today Nodira Khidoyatova was arrested yesterday on charges of embezzlement, concealment of foreign currency, tax evasion, and money laundering.

A spokeswoman for the Uzbek Prosecutor-General, Svetlana Ortiqova, told RFE/RL today that the charges are economic and not political.

“All these crimes [with which Khidoyatova is charged] are economic,” spokeswoman Ortiqova said. “There should be no political interpretation of them. Khidoyatova has committed crimes of an economic nature and she is charged with those crimes accordingly.”

One quickly notices that Sanjar Umarov was nailed with a couple of those charges as well. One may further notice that concealment of foreign currency and tax evasion (of a sort) are as common as tea and plov in Uzbekistan. I don’t know who the Prosecutor-General thinks it is fooling, but as is often the case, they seem to believe what they are saying.

*The name is spelled Hidoyatova in Uzbek and not Xidoyatova, right? The way it’s being transliterated (most likely from Russian) is confusing me.

This post was written by...

Nathan Hamm – author of 2040 posts on Registan.net.

Nathan founded Registan.net in 2003. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan 2000-2001 and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the University of Washington in 2007. Since 2007, he has worked full-time as an analyst, consulting with clients on Central Asian affairs, specializing in how socio-cultural factors shape risks and opportunities. Follow him on Twitter or drop him a line.