Uzbekistan: Sunny Coalition Coordinator Nadira Khidoyatova set free for a "ransom" amounting to $100,000
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The Tashkent Court of Appeals chose to change the sentence drawn by Sunny Coalition Coordinator Nadira Khidoyatova earlier this year. Charged with financial fraud, embezzlement, tax evasion, and organization of a gang, Khidoyatova was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in March 2006.
The Board of the Court of Appeals verified Khidoyatova's guilt but lent a sympathetic ear to the prosecutor's and defendant's pleas. Khidoyatova's sentence was changed to seven years imprisonment (sentence to be suspended) with three year probation. The opposition activist was released right in the courtroom.
Nadira Khidoyatova's daughter Malika is giving her a hug
Judges took into account the fact that Khidoyatova has two children (one of them juvenile). The procedure of "liberalization" was invoked in Khidoyatova's case. Introduced in Uzbekistan in 2004, the procedure permits defendants to recompense the state for the damage in return for a milder sentence. Khidoyatova's relatives and friends were reported to have transacted to bank accounts of the Prosecutor General's Office 36,975,000 sums and $40,000.
The state also repossessed the office of Khidoyatova's company Buyuk Simoijlar evaluated at 31 million sums. Even the $300 and 28 Russian rubles confiscated from Khidoyatova when she was arrested at the airport in December 2005 went to the state. Sum total of Khidoyatova's recompense amounted to 120,000,000 sums or approximately $100,000.
Nadira Khidoyatova is leaving the court
Before letting the defendant out the iron cage in the courtroom, judges explained the terms of the probation period that had begun on March 1, 2006. Khidoyatova cannot leave Tashkent without the authorities' permission. She is supposed to report regularly to the police station and stay at her apartment between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. every night.
Khidoyatova is also expected to pay the state 150,000,000 sums (approximately $125,000) more in the course of the probation period. Khidoyatova was sternly warned to abide by the law "or the 7 year imprisonment sentence will be invoked."