TASHKENT (TCA) — Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has harshly criticized the country’s prosecutors, calling on them to treat ordinary citizens and entrepreneurs properly, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reported.
At the meeting with Uzbekistan’s prosecutors on January 7 — a day before Prosecutors Day — Mirziyoyev called on the prosecutors to “get rid of” the Soviet-era “image of punitive officials” and to become “defenders” of citizens’ rights and interests.
Mirziyoyev said that people can endure any hardship but they cannot tolerate injustice, adding that prosecution authorities should play an important role in further strengthening of justice in society, the Jahon information agency reported.
The President also said that prosecution bodies should play an important role in further developing entrepreneurship activities.
He underlined that if entrepreneurs are rich, the state will be rich as well, and that all conditions should be created for businesspeople. Prosecutors should help and support businesses, the President said.
Mirziyoyev also said that all prosecutors will be evaluated by a system under which each prosecutor will be rated on a regular basis by local officials and citizens.
2017 was announced in Uzbekistan as the Year of Dialogue with Population and Human Interests, and no appeals of the population and businesses should be ignored by prosecutors, the President said.
Mirziyoyev was elected Uzbekistan’s president on December 4, 2016 and has since taken steps to open up the tightly controlled country in a bid to improve its economic prospects and to boost communication between authorities and citizens.
