Mukhamed Bobir Malikov

Mukhamed Bobir Malikov came to diplomacy from the legal system. After training as an aviation technician and working at a Tashkent aircraft factory, he studied law at Tashkent State University, graduating in 1972. He worked in prosecution and justice institutions before becoming a regional judge, a member of the Uzbek Supreme Court, and chairman of the Andijan regional court. By 1989 he chaired the Supreme Court of the Uzbek Soviet republic. ^{1, 2}

Malikov was independent Uzbekistan’s first justice minister, serving from 1991 to 1993, and its first ambassador to the United States in 1993. His Washington assignment ended in a break with President Islam Karimov’s government. A contemporary Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty digest reported that he had received political asylum in the United States in 1993 and had become an opponent of Karimov. A later Uzbek press history of the Justice Ministry records that he remained in the United States with his family after his diplomatic service. ^{2, 3}