Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Akmal Burkhanov, head of the Anti-Corruption Agency, stated that no embezzlement of public funds found in Cinema Agency case. He stated this at a reporting press conference of the agency on 10 March in Tashkent. The conducted investigation confirmed that Firdavs Abdukhalikov did not embezzle state money.

“I want to be clear. In the case of the Cinema Agency, there was a lot of discussion: “Why administrative responsibility? After all, for a smaller amount (applied) criminal liability. There were even arrests.

“It should be noted that in this case there was no misappropriation of public funds, and they did not go into someone’s pocket. Here we are talking about the fact that no conflict of interest was reported during the procurement. Allocated money spent legally. That is, there was no case of illegal spending of funds. The material (film production) was prepared on the basis of an order. Money well spent. That’s what it’s all about. It envisages administrative responsibility for the fact that he (Abdukhalikov) did not exclude himself from a conflict of interest. This is not the case when someone "ate" the money and plundered the state budget. We ask you to take this into account. When checking by the prosecutor’s office, it was established that the money was not stolen, and if it were stolen, it would be held accountable under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code,” commented Akmal Burkhanov.