Uzbekistan’s Death Penalty Debate Returns After Child Abuse Case

For the second time in the  span of a year a brutal child abuse case has sparked heated public discussion in Uzbekistan. Reportedly, a five-year-old girl was repeatedly raped in a public kindergarten by a facilities manager who worked at the school in the Uchkurgan district of Namangan. According to the mother of the survivor, the alleged perpetrator is their neighbor and she became suspicious after she saw him smiling at her five-year-old daughter. She gently asked the girl questions only to find out that the facilities manager would buy sweets for the girl, tell her he loved her, and promised to buy more presents and sweets if she didn’t expose him. The mother suspects the man had threatened her daughter.  

Last year a similar case, which also occurred in Namangan, where a previously imprisoned convict raped a seven-year-old girl, caused a wave of demands by the public to restore the death penalty for serious crimes such as the sexual assault of minors. Public discussions over the death penalty typically emerge in Uzbekistan after news of an especially brutal crime against children breaks. An earlier wave of loud discussions took place in 2024 after a three-year-old was stabbed 12 times. 

What’s new this time is that high-ranking political figures are getting involved. 

Saida Mirziyoyeva, the head of the presidential administration and a deputy chair of the Security Council (and also the president’s daughter) chimed in. “In my opinion, the death penalty should be used for such heinous crimes. Unfortunately, the current legislation does not provide for the death penalty,” she wrote on her Telegram channel on September 27. 

“We are preparing a proposal to amend the legislation to maximize liability for this type of crime,” she added. 

Echoing Mirziyoyeva’s words, Alisher Qodirov, leader of the Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival) Democratic Party and deputy speaker of the Uzbek parliament, called death penalty a “necessity.” Qodirov is famous for making nationalist, sometimes controversial statements. 

“The continued existence of those who intentionally kill innocent people, especially child murderers and pedophiles, is a motivation for further crimes of this kind!” Qodirov wrote on his Telegram, reposting Mirziyoyeva’s earlier statement. 

This is not the first time Qodirov has voiced his position on the death penalty. Previously, in 2024, after news reports about a three-year-old girl being murdered, Qodirov suggested “cleansing” society. “It’s illogical to use our taxes to support a criminal who’s become an animal, keep him healthy, feed him, and then wait for someone else to die! Society needs to be cleansed of such people!” he wrote.

Both Mirziyoyeva and Qodirov know that Uzbekistan abolished capital punishment in 2008 and acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR aimed at abolition. Uzbekistan has no mechanism to reinstate the death penalty without a much larger legal overhaul, and no such overhaul is presently underway.

In a rather unusual course of developments for Uzbekistan, the discussion over the death penalty divided the country’s political parties. As a new bill to increase liability for violence against children was introduced to the Legislative Chamber on September 29, Qodirov announced a neutral position on the proposed bill and doubled down on his stance regarding the need to resurrect the death penalty. Qodirov referred to Norwegian neo-Nazi and mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, stating that he had complained “about the lack of facilities for writing a book, and those conditions were subsequently provided for him.”

Qodirov’s interpretation isn’t quite accurate. While Breivik did complain about the “stab-resistant” pen he was made to write with and was reportedly provided with an electronic typewriter, Breivik’s communications continue to be censored by prison authorities and he has not published a book.

Nevertheless, using Breivik as a point of reference, Qodirov questioned the compatibility of Uzbek values and international law. 

“Whose footsteps are we following!?” he asked. “We will also be forced to create conditions for our pedophile if he asks, because the international law we follow sees him as a human being, not as a dead person.”

Bobur Bekmurodov, a member of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis and leader of the Yuksalish movement, opposed Qodirov’s statements openly. His arguments are clear: the constitution prohibits the death penalty, bringing the death penalty back could put child victims in greater danger, break Uzbekistan’s international obligations and raise the possibility of errors in judicial practices. 

“If child rape is punishable by death, there is nothing to stop the perpetrator from destroying the only witness, the child himself,” wrote Bekmurodov.

While the grief over the case is genuine, the debate over the death penalty is a populist, opportunistic response. In a country where no other important questions are debated by high (or  low) profile politicians, children and women’s abuse is a risk-free topic. Not only does it attract empathy from millions of citizens, but it also gains praise from international organizations. Siding with an innocent child is always a winning move. 

As outrage grows, officials do their best to appease the public. The investigation over the case is now under the prosecutor general’s control. Shakhnoza Mirziyoyeva, another daughter of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and the first deputy director of the National Agency for Social Protection, reported that her agency is also involved in the case and the survivor’s family will be moved to another city and provided with housing. The agency also suggested changing the girl’s surname to ensure her privacy as she rehabilitates. The Ministry of Preschool and School Education formed a working group to address the situation.

Right now, all attention is being given to maximizing punishment for one perpetrator and not letting another incident happen. What is left out of these debates is the failure of the systems that should have protected this girl. The mother of the survivor told local media that the cameras in the kindergarten did not record anything that day. And more absurdly, she had been told that the perpetrator was responsible for the cameras. The perpetrator’s wife allegedly offered her a bribe to close the case, too. 

The staff of the kindergarten  who are supposed to protect the children in their care, are hiding behind paperwork instead of showing compassion. The director of the kindergarten said she was on a holiday when the alleged incident occurred and she had already provided explanatory letters to the police. She also added that children are never left unsupervised. The girl’s teacher also swore the girl was never left alone – “Not an hour, not a minute, would [she] be left unattended.”

Local media outlets and the authorities have not disclosed the perpetrator’s name or released a mugshot. Netizens, however, have found his photos and full name and doxed his identity on social media pages. 

Yesterday, Shakhnoza Mirziyoyeva noted that her agency, together with other relevant bodies, had been working on a draft law that would introduce life imprisonment for crimes involving child sexual abuse.

“We also propose to strengthen the responsibility of parents for neglecting children and of educators for allowing violence and discrimination, and to provide legal assistance and protection to child victims at every stage of the investigation and trial,” the agency’s Telegram post stated.

From 2022 to 2026 445 cases of rape involving minors under 14 years old were formally registered in Uzbekistan. Not all cases make headlines. Journalist and economist Bakhodir Abdullayev noted that the legislation on lifetime imprisonment for sexual abuse of minors was supposed to be passed by April 2026. But it wasn’t until the current furor, when it became politically expedient to take action, that the legislature actually moved.

The Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis passed the bill on September 29.