According to the case materials, in April 2022, D.R. left for Russia to work, where he got a job as a taxi driver. In September of the same year, during a police check, drugs were found in his car. Six months later, he was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison for drug trafficking.
In October 2024, while in prison, D.R. signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. As the convict himself claims, he did not fully understand what he was signing, as he had a poor command of the Russian language. He believed that these were documents for his transfer to serve his sentence in his homeland.
Instead of being deported, he ended up in a military unit, where, after training, he was sent to the front in Ukraine. He served in the Russian army until November 2025.
According to him, he intentionally shot himself in the leg to avoid further participation in combat operations. After this, he was hospitalized but soon escaped from the hospital. With the help of the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Moscow, he returned to his homeland and voluntarily reported to the law enforcement authorities.
The court found D.R. guilty under Articles 154 and 154-1 of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan, which pertain to mercenarism and recruitment for military service. As a result, he was sentenced to four years of restriction of freedom and two years of corrective labor; however, the final term amounted to four years and one month of restriction of freedom.
Additionally, he is prohibited from leaving the boundaries of the Kashkadarya region without the permission of the authorities and changing his place of residence.
