The mayor of Uzbekistan's southern border city of Termiz has been arrested on embezzlement charges, an official close to the city administration told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity.
According to the official, who spoke to RFE/RL on October 5, Isroil Khudoiberdiev was fired from the post on September 21 and is currently under arrest along with his deputy, Gairat Elamanov.
A source close to the Uzbek Prosecutor-General's Office told RFE/RL that the charges against Khudoiberdiev and Elamanov stem from the construction of a large food market in the city on the border with Afghanistan, which was completed in 2020.
Khudoiberdiev has served as the mayor of Termiz since 2017.
Khudoiberdiev's arrest comes amid a house cleaning by President Shavkat Mirziyoev, who has fired mayors and governors of 14 cities and districts in the last 10 days.
London-based analyst Alisher Ilhamov told RFE/RL that corruption among mayors and governors in Central Asia's most-populous nation of some 35 million is a big problem, emphasizing the lack of transparency in the regional leaders' activities.
According to Ilhamov, if mayors and local governors were elected by residents instead of being appointed by Tashkent, they would be more accountable to voters and therefore more transparent with their decisions and operations on a regular basis.
"The accountability of governors to the people can be established only via elections. We remember Mirziyoev's words, when he promised right after he came to power [in 2016] to introduce a system of elections of governors and mayors. That has never been done," Ilhamov said.
