Uznews.net – Azamat Yakubov, an activist from Tashkent Region’s Parkent District has been fined for trying to build a gas-supply network in the village of Navbahor and has been banned from occupying managerial posts.

The Parkent District criminal court found Yakubov guilty of embezzlement under Article 167 of the Uzbek Criminal Code and fined 12,089,319 sums, banning from managerial posts on 16 June.

The activist said the charges had been fabricated to punish him for his initiative to pay for building a gas-supply network in his village. He said that prosecutors had not even turned up for his trial.

“My neighbours attended the trial and gave testimonies in my favour, but the judge paid no attention to their evidence,” Yakubov said. “There is no offence because no-one complained, there is no evidence and there is no complainant. Everything was trumped up. I only wanted to help people.”

He said that after authorities failed to build a gas-supply network in his village in 2003, he and his fellow villages decided to independently build it and collected 31 million sums, of which his contribution was 20 million sums.

When work started, the Parkent District administration decided to appropriate the project, he said. After he sued the local authorities, he was arrested on 10 March. The prosecutor’s office accused him of embezzling 5 million sums.

Azamat Yakubov has now been banned from managerial jobs, so he cannot manage the gas project in his village. He does not agree with the court ruling and is convinced that only residents of Navbahor themselves are capable of building a gas-supply network in their village.