Uzbek citizen arrested in the USA: what is the reason?

Governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro issued an official statement regarding the case of Uzbek citizen Akhror Bozorov. This was reported by Zamin.uz.

According to him, Bozorov was accused by Uzbekistan of promoting jihad and was wanted, yet he obtained a commercial driver's license (CDL) in Pennsylvania, USA. According to Shapiro, Pennsylvania officials used the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system during the license issuance process.

However, since there was no information in this system indicating Bozorov was wanted, there was no obstacle to issuing the license. Shapiro said about this: “The system we use did not fully perform its function.

Pennsylvania conducted all necessary checks, but an error occurred because the required information was not reflected in the federal database.” It is reported that 31-year-old Akhror Bozorov was arrested on November 9 while working as a truck driver in Kansas. The Uzbek government accused him of distributing online materials aimed at calling for jihad and recruiting supporters.

An arrest warrant was issued in 2022 regarding this charge. Following this incident, Pennsylvania officials began reviewing the process of issuing commercial driver's licenses to foreign nationals.

They also demanded improvements and strengthening of the information exchange system between federal agencies.