Uzbek chief prosecutor sacked over graft probe -report

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has sacked Prosecutor General Otabek Murodov after he was targeted in a corruption probe, news website Gazeta.uz quoted Mirziyoyev as saying on Friday. Last week, the Uzbek authorities announced that the former head of state security, Ikhtiyor Abdullayev, was also being investigated for alleged corruption.

Both Murodov and Abdullayev were promoted last year after a similar purge of high-ranking security officials. Gazeta.uz quoted Mirziyoyev, president since late 2016, as saying in parliament that the Central Asian nation needed to "cleanse the system's blood" from corruption.

Mirziyoyev, who succeeded late strongman Islam Karimov, who ruled resource-rich Uzbekistan for 27 years, has moved to curb security bodies' powers as part of a campaign to liberalise and open up the previously isolated nation.