Young man who spent seven months in custody on drug charges acquitted in Samarkand

Acquittal after seven months in custody

In Samarkand, a court acquitted Jamshid Akmalov, born in 2003, who was accused of selling 1.02 grams of mephedrone for 300 dollars to an undercover operative on March 14, 2026. The Kun.uz outlet reviewed the verdict. According to the initial investigative documents, the arrest was carried out by operatives of the Samarkand Region Police Department in the Sugdiyon mahalla at around 23:00 on March 14, and the next day, March 15, the court imposed a pre-trial detention measure on him — thus, by the time of the acquittal, the young man had spent about seven months in custody.

The defendant's version: the operatives' request and planted money

In court, Akmalov did not plead guilty. According to his testimony set out in the case files, on March 14 he met an acquaintance named Temur, they went to a bathhouse and a barbershop together, and at around 21:00 Temur received a call from his uncle, who was driving a Li-9. The uncle asked Akmalov to find mephedrone for him; he refused. Temur, according to the defendant, threatened to call the uncle and demand that he obtain the substance within an hour, after which he put him out of the car.

How the arrest itself was described

Next, according to Akmalov's testimony, as he was walking past a grocery store, a police officer named Shahboz approached him, greeted him, and then suddenly grabbed him by the belt from behind and led him to a Malibu car, where he intended to search his pockets. Another officer in plain clothes, according to the defendant, ordered that the pockets not be searched and that he be put straight into the car, where he ended up between two officers — Shahboz and Eldor. Akmalov asserted in court that the operatives had asked him to 'find mephedrone and ensure the conduct of an undercover operation,' and after his refusal they took him to the police department building, beat him, and put money in his pocket, then recorded what was happening on video. The outcome of the trial was an acquittal; Kun.uz describes it by saying that the 'cover' of the undercover operation 'exposed itself.' The details presented in the publication are based on investigative documents and the testimony of the acquitted man himself — the position of law enforcement agencies is not presented in the material.