TASHKENT — Prisoners in Uzbekistan will be able to plead for reduced sentences if they read books selected by authorities to cultivate “correct spiritual and moral values,” officials said.

Lawmakers in the former Soviet republic passed a penal code amendment on Thursday introducing the scheme for around 13,500 inmates, all except for those sentenced to life imprisonment.

They will have to pick books “from a list approved by the Republican Center for Spirituality and Enlightenment (a state body), aimed at forming correct spiritual and moral values in convicts,” the Central Asian country’s Senate said.

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Read to reduce sentence, Uzbekistan tells prisoners

“For each book read, the sentence can be reduced by three days, but not more than 30 days a year,” it added.

A special committee will verify whether the inmate has actually read the book.

The list of authorized books has not been made public.

Opening up to the world since the 2016 election of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev after a quarter-century of relative isolation, Uzbekistan has successfully attracted foreign investment and developed tourism.

But political opposition and civil society remain virtually nonexistent, while the press and economy are still largely controlled by the state.

Earlier this year, Uzbekistan, through its state news agency, said it was “working to ensure the rights and freedoms of convicts and to harmonize criminal legislation with the norms of international law.”

But in its 2025 report, Human Rights Watch said “torture and ill-treatment remain a serious problem,” and the United Nations Human Rights Committee has urged Uzbekistan to “eradicate” such practices.

Amnesty International has said it is alarmed that the Uzbek authorities have “continued to tighten their control over the right to freedom of expression.”