Kashkadarya couple sentenced to three years for attempting to sell teenager

According to the case materials reviewed by the Daryo publication, the teenager, born in 2011, was raised in a family alongside another child born after the marriage in 2019. At the trial, the spouses explained their actions by citing financial difficulties and debts, stating that they were seeking any means of earning money.

A buyer for the teenager was found through an acquaintance in the Angor district of Surkhandarya Region. On August 8, 2025, the couple arrived in the district to hand over the child. The terms of the deal provided for a lump-sum payment of 30 thousand dollars, as well as the subsequent transfer of 200 million soums after 15 days. At the moment of transferring the banknotes marked with a special chemical substance, the spouses were detained by internal affairs officers.

During the trial, the defendants admitted their guilt. The 14-year-old teenager himself told the court that he was aware of the plans to give him to another family, agreed to this because of the family's difficult situation, and asked for leniency. The Termez District Criminal Court found the defendants guilty of human trafficking under paragraph "b" of Part 3 of Article 135 of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan and, applying Article 57 of the Code, sentenced each to three years of imprisonment.