Student who tried to set fire to Israeli embassy in Tashkent sentenced to 5-year imprisonment 

Tashkent court has held a trial of a 19-year-old second-year student at the Uzbekistan State World Languages University tried to set fire to the Israeli embassy, the correspondent of UzNews.uz reported, referring to the court's verdict.

According to the case material, at around 04:30 on October 19, 2023, the young man put a bottle of kerosene, dumbbells, two boxes of matches and pieces of fabric in a sports bag and rode a bicycle to the embassy side.

When he arrived at the embassy, his actions attracted the attention of the staff of the Yakkasaray district police department, located near the embassy. After the police asked him to stop, the young man tried to escape. The staff caught up with him in a service car, took him to the police station and asked him to show his bag.

The young man distracted the attention of the staff, picked up a bottle of kerosene and dumbbells and ran towards the embassy building. The police and the National Guard, who were guarding the embassy building, detained the young man near the embassy door, but he managed to throw a bottle and dumbbell into the embassy courtyard.

At the trial, the student said he began watching videos of the armed conflict between Israel and Palestine in the Gaza Strip in mid-October last year. As a result, he had a hatred for Israel and decided to burn down the country's embassy in Tashkent to take revenge.

He said that he had no intention of harming people or the embassy and he just wanted to protest. The defendant admitted his guilt and realized that his actions were wrong.

According to the verdict of the Yakkasaray district court on criminal cases, the young man was found guilty of committing a crime under Article 155-1 of the Criminal Code (Terrorism), and sentenced to 5 years in a general regime colony.