In May 2026, the Criminal Court of Zangiota District Court convicted a man under Article 113(4) of the Uzbek Criminal Code for knowingly exposing his wife to HIV without informing her of his status.
According to the judgment, the accused, a plumber from Zangiota district born in 1989, had been officially registered at the regional AIDS centre in August 2025 after testing positive for HIV. At the time of registration, he had signed a formal warning acknowledging that knowingly placing another person at risk of HIV transmission could result in criminal liability. Despite this, he continued to live with his wife and their three children and engaged in repeated unprotected sexual relations with her without disclosing his diagnosis.
The case emerged after police summoned both spouses in March 2026 during an administrative inquiry. During questioning, the wife learned for the first time that her husband had been registered as HIV-positive and under medical supervision. Upset that he had concealed the diagnosis, she filed a complaint. Medical testing later confirmed that she had not contracted HIV.
During the trial, the defendant fully admitted the allegations. He explained that he had worked for years at a market in Tashkent, often handling old metal pipes and suffering cuts to his hands. After becoming seriously ill and increasingly weak in 2025, he underwent testing and discovered he was HIV-positive. He told the court that he had hidden the diagnosis from his wife because he feared she would leave him and break up the family. He said he deeply regretted his actions.
The wife confirmed that they had continued normal marital relations throughout the period and that she had only learned of his HIV status through police officers. However, after later testing negative, she reconciled with her husband and told the court she no longer had any claims against him. She asked the court not to impose a custodial sentence.
The court found the defendant guilty based on his confession, medical documentation from the regional AIDS centre, written warnings acknowledging his legal obligations, and witness statements. The judges concluded that he had knowingly placed another person at risk of HIV transmission by concealing his status and continuing unprotected sexual relations.
In sentencing, the court considered several mitigating factors, including the defendant’s remorse, his confession, the absence of actual transmission, his difficult family circumstances, and the victim’s request for leniency. Applying Article 57 of the Criminal Code, the court imposed a lighter sentence than normally by law and sentenced him to one year of restriction of liberty rather than imprisonment.
Under the sentence, the man was ordered to remain at his registered residence outside work-related travel and placed under the supervision of the probation authorities in Zangiota district. The court also warned him that failure to comply with the conditions of the sentence could result in its replacement with a harsher punishment.
