A resident of Uzbekistan’s central Sirdaryo Region, former law enforcement officer, Tolibjon Zokirov, jointly with his elder sister, Nilufar Zokirova, trafficked local women to the Russian capital of Moscow, said the Uzbek TV’s documentary film entitled “Slave traders (Odamfurushlar)”. Nilufar Zokirova asked Tolibjon Zokirov to find young women in Uzbekistan in order to traffic them to Moscow for sex slavery, it said.

“Tolibjon Zokirov, who was looking for ways of becoming rich quickly, liked his sister’s proposal. He explained his sister’s business plan to Marat, unemployed resident of the same town as him,” the TV programme said. "Marat travelled to Tashkent to find beautiful, attractive young women," it said. The film said that Marat and his two other accomplices in Tashkent deceived two local women by promising them well paid jobs in Moscow. “They send these women to Moscow on 7 June 2008,” it said.

The film said that Tolibjon Zokirov and other members of the group were detained at the Tashkent airport while seeing three young women off. “Members of the criminal group were detained by law enforcement agencies on 24 July 2008, approximately at 0200, while they were sending the women to Moscow,” the programme said.

The Uzbek law enforcement agencies also uncovered another organized criminal group that trafficked women to the Indonesian capital for sex slavery, the programme also said. A native of Tashkent, Tatyana Musayeva, headed the criminal group, it said. “Tatyana Musayeva, who is refusing to explain the details of the crime she had committed, was engaged in trafficking young women, trapped by the criminal group, to a nightclub in Jakarta and selling them there,” the programme said.

Another member of the criminal group, Boburkhoja Mahamadkhojayev, was responsible for preparing documents needed for receiving visas for victims of the group, the report said. The film also featured an interview with Boburkhoja Mahamadkhojayev, who said he was paid US$150 for his work.

“As you see, the fight against human trafficking is being stepped up in our country, such disgusting activities of people are being suppressed and people, who are committing these mean crimes, are being held accountable,” the programme concluded.