A court in Uzbekistan on Monday sentenced to sentences of up to twenty years in prison the main protagonists in the affair of adulterated Indian cough syrup which caused the death of 68 children in this Central Asian country in winter last.
Among the 21 accused, an Indian citizen, director of the Quramax Medikal company importing Doc-1 Max syrup into Uzbekistan, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the Uzbek Supreme Court announced on Telegram.
He was notably found guilty of corruption, tax fraud, as well as forgery and use of forgery.
According to the spokesperson for the Supreme Court, a total of seven people working in the pharmaceutical industry were sentenced to prison.
Uzbek citizens have received sentences of up to 18 years in prison.
Ingestion of deadly substances
Officially, 86 children were poisoned in Uzbekistan between fall 2022 and winter 2023 after ingesting this syrup and 68 of them lost their lives.
In January 2023, the WHO warned that analyzes of samples of this product had revealed unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and/or ethylene glycol, substances which are fatal if ingested.
India then canceled the production license for the company Marion Biotech, where these cough syrups were manufactured.
Furthermore, at least 70 children died in Gambia during the same period from acute kidney failure after consuming another syrup imported from India.
And in Indonesia, another syrup with similar components caused the death of more than 200 children in 2022-2023.