In November 2023, Tursynbaev was detained together with another blogger, Salamat Seitmuratov. In March 2024, a court in Nukus sentenced each of them to five years in prison on charges of extortion; the appellate court upheld the verdict. Tursynbaev denied the charges. It was noted that the only piece of evidence presented in the case was a single recorded telephone conversation, which, according to them, was initiated at the request of Uzbekistan’s security services.

Amid heightened public attention to the cases of Tursynbaev and Seitmuratov, the Uzbek authorities restricted access to information: state-controlled media did not report on the trial, the bloggers’ relatives complained that they were unable to obtain copies of the verdict, and only the text of the appellate ruling containing numerous redactions was published on the website of the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan.

Mustafa Tursynbaev’s arrest and conviction closely linked to restrictions on freedom of expression and his professional activities as an independent blogger. As the creator of the widely followed Nukus Online channel, he provided non-state reporting on social and public issues in Karakalpakstan, a sensitive context following the 2022 Nukus protests. His detention in November 2023, the use of extortion charges based on a single recorded phone call allegedly initiated by security services, the lack of transparency during trial and appeal, and the absence of meaningful public scrutiny together indicate that criminal law was used to suppress his media work rather than address genuine criminal conduct.