The head of the Qonun doirasida project (“Within the law”) Furkat Ruzmetov and editorial staff member Azamat Avezov have been taken into custody in Urgench, the Department of Internal Affairs of Khorezm Region reported. They are suspected of defamation, extortion, and a number of other crimes. Ruzmetov is 45 years old, Avezov is 33. Both are lawyers.
The official statement says that the investigative department under the Urgench Department of Internal Affairs is conducting a pre-investigation inquiry based on complaints from several citizens.
The detainees are charged under seven articles of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan, including:
- Clauses “a” and “g” of part 3 of Article 139 — defamation combined with accusing a person of committing a serious or especially serious crime, committed for mercenary or other base motives;
- Clauses “a” and “v” of part 3 of Article 165 — extortion committed on a particularly large scale by an organized group or in its interests;
- Clauses “a” and “v” of part 4 of Article 168 — fraud committed on a large scale using official position;
- Part 3 of Article 198 — intentional damage to or destruction of crops, forest, trees, or other plants causing major damage;
- Clause “b” of part 2 and part 3 of Article 228 — production and forgery of documents, stamps, seals, and forms, their sale or use by prior conspiracy by a group of persons, as well as the use of a knowingly forged document;
- Article 229 — arbitrariness;
- Part 3 of Article 244-6 — dissemination of false information.
It is reported that other individuals are also involved in the case.
The website qonundoirasida.uz has not been updated since 2023, and its development was not completed. The project’s main channel for disseminating information is a YouTube channel with 870,000 subscribers. The latest video was published on January 21 and has already received 58,000 views. The project also has channels on Telegram (5,912 subscribers) and TikTok (23,200 subscribers).
This is at least the second case of journalists being detained in the past seven days. On January 16, 2026, five people connected with the media outlet Taftish.uz were detained in Tashkent. They are suspected of committing crimes under Articles 165 (extortion) and 168 (fraud) of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan.
Also, on January 20, the Margilan City Criminal Court found journalist Elyor Tojiboev guilty under a number of articles of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan and sentenced him to four years of imprisonment to be served in a strict-regime colony.
In the image in the post are Ruzmetov and Avezov. The photos were scanned from the video recording of the official statement.