The key facts

  • Four employees of the catering company were convicted in the case of the poisoning of 105 children in Fergana on 21 February 2026
  • The total amount of embezzled budget funds across the episodes of the case exceeded 1 billion soums
  • The convicted persons were released from custody in the courtroom

Verdict in the mass poisoning case

In the criminal case over the mass poisoning of more than a hundred children in Fergana, four people have been held criminally liable — the head, director, technologist and accountant of Garden catering trade LLC, a company engaged in outsourced food delivery to state kindergartens in Fergana and Kuvasay. Kun.uz reports this, citing a court document. In addition to the poisoning of children, they were found guilty of embezzlement through misappropriation or squandering and of document forgery.

Embezzlement episodes

According to the verdict, company officials unjustifiably inflated the number of children in daily menus and, by preparing false reports and submitting them for payment, embezzled 330.8 million soums of budget funds. In addition, they entered false information that the children had been fully issued the 1,270 kg of butter worth 79,853,000 soums and 2,447 kg of meat products worth 183.5 million soums due to them under the norms, after which they submitted a total of 263 million soums for payment — 594 million soums in total was embezzled in this episode.

The poisoning and other episodes

Violating its obligations on how long prepared dishes may be kept on the serving line (no more than two hours) and the ban on reheating them, the company delivered substandard meat dish — dolma — to kindergartens in Fergana on 20 February 2026. The next day, 21 February, 105 children were poisoned. Also, according to the court, employees covertly stole electricity worth 35 million soums, causing 105.8 million soums in damage to the Kuvasay power supply enterprise, and unjustifiably included a markup of up to 30% in the menus of 22 kindergartens under the Kuvasay preschool education system, thereby embezzling another 171 million soums. A separate episode concerns August 2025: prepared dishes worth 53.4 million soums delivered to 35 kindergartens in Margilan, Kuvasay, Fergana, as well as the Fergana and Kuva districts, were found unfit for consumption and returned, yet reports of their distribution to children were nevertheless drawn up and submitted for payment.

Release from custody

According to Kun.uz, the four convicted persons were released from custody in the courtroom. The outlet does not provide details about the sentence imposed or the reasons for the release — this information is absent from the available publication.