Listen to the article
Land deals, law-enforcement favours and even a seat in a local legislature: seven bribery cases documented over roughly twelve months in Uzbekistan reveal a pattern in which public officials exploited their proximity to state resources — above all, land allocation — to extract payments running from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands.
Land as the Currency of Corruption
The largest sum in the series involved a senior inspector at the Disorder Prevention Department of the Taylak District internal-affairs office in Samarkand region. Detained in his own office in May 2019 while receiving $60,000, he had negotiated a total payment of $70,000, promising that the district khokim — the chief executive — would issue a ruling recognising a buyer’s ownership of a building. Criminal proceedings were opened on charges of fraud and related articles of the Criminal Code.
A $50,000 case centred on a planned sale of one hectare of land in Tashkent’s Chilanzar district for $1.4 million. Two suspects were detained: one from the Tashkent city khokimiyat‘s capital construction department, the other the head of a department at the Chilanzar district khokimiyat. Prosecutors opened a case on charges of bribery and acting as an intermediary in bribery.
Two separate $25,000 cases illustrate how officials without formal authority over land allocation still managed to monetise their connections to those who held it. In June 2020, the deputy khokim of Kibray district in Tashkent region demanded $60,000 for ten hectares and the associated paperwork; because deputy khokims are not legally empowered to allocate land, the case was charged as fraud and complicity in bribery rather than straightforward bribery. In October 2019, a cadastre employee in Altyaryk district, Fergana region, was detained with material evidence alongside unnamed associates. He and his group had demanded $30,000 from a citizen, promising that the district khokim would allocate five hectares for horticulture. Charges included fraud, giving a bribe and various forms of criminal complicity.
A fifth land-related case, from August 2020, saw a cadastre official in Khorezm region detained while receiving $20,000 — the full amount he had demanded from a company in exchange for allocating fifteen hectares for fishing. He was charged with receiving a bribe on an especially large scale.
Beyond Land: Police Powers and a Legislative Seat
Two cases fell outside the land nexus entirely. In August 2020, the deputy head of the internal-affairs department of Bekabad district in Tashkent region was detained after promising to alter the pre-trial detention measure applied to a person wanted by police, in exchange for $5,000. The specific charges had not been publicly confirmed at the time the cases were compiled.
The smallest sum — $3,000 — involved the most unusual abuse of office. A deputy of a district Kengash (people’s deputies council) in Tashkent promised to help a candidate secure election to a district kengash seat, extorting money in return. He was detained after receiving an advance payment of $1,500. Criminal proceedings were opened on charges of fraud and bribery.
Taken together, the seven cases point to a structural vulnerability: in a system where land rights, law-enforcement decisions and even electoral outcomes depend heavily on individual officials’ discretion, the opportunity and incentive for extortion are built into the architecture of governance itself. All seven cases resulted in criminal proceedings; the outcomes of those proceedings were not detailed in the available record.