Noryigitov also wrote a letter of complaint to the Pop district Prosecutor’s Office dated 30 January 2021. In this letter, Noryigitov claims that he did not know who wrote the application for the transfer of his land, that the signature on the application did not belong to him, and therefore he asked the prosecutor to open a criminal investigation into the matter.169 In response to Noryigitov’s letter, the Prosecutor’s Office made a request to A.S. Nodirov, head of the investigation department of the Pop district Department of Internal Affairs, to investigate the case. In a response dated 15 April 2021, Nodirov states that the application registered by the hokimiyat on 28 December 2018 belonged to Noryigitov (even if the signature was not his), and as such, there were no grounds to initiate a criminal case.170 The cases of Dilora Usmanova and Sharifa Tuychieva Dilora Usmanova attests that she has been farming land in Pop district with her husband Khairulla Usmanov since 2006.171 Sharifa Tuychieva was appointed the owner of a farm, ‘Mirzobedil Temurbek’, by Pop district hokimiyat decision no. 1894, dated 11 September 2018.172 The latter farm’s primary activity was growing cotton on a total land area of 36.5 hectares.173 Both Usmanov and Tuychieva each separately testify that the Pop district hokim forced farmers to plant cotton on land that was unsuitable for growing the crop. Fearing seizure of their land, both families complied with the district hokimiyat orders, and, as a result, accrued debts due to the low returns from cotton production in soil with high saline levels. Both Usmanova and Tuychieva attest that they were held in the district culture centre and forced by representatives of the district hokimiyat to sign over their land. This corresponds with the testimony of Noryigitov and Ibragimova, who were similarly held against their will under threat of penalty by government officials until they agreed to terminate their land leases. Image: The alleged letter rescinding the Zaynatbegim Mobinahon farmland Source: Uzbek Forum A False Sense of Legality 53