Tengrinews describes the suspect as a 46-year-old Uzbek citizen held in Astana on suspicion of espionage under article 176 of the criminal code, and says it asked the committee to confirm the media reports. The committee's reply, as the outlet carried it, runs to two sentences: the secrecy of the pre-trial investigation, and the notification of Tashkent. No date is attached to either.
Maqsut Narikbayev University, where he taught international relations and directed the CEGREG centre, told the outlet that «Ikboljon Qoraboyev is not currently a professor of our university». The desk's file from 27 August, built on his family's account to BBC Uzbek as relayed by Fergana and Asia-Plus, has him held since 3 July on a charge that carries 10 to 15 years, with unpublished research on critical minerals in the background and a Kazakh-Uzbek working group on rare earths in the foreground.
Two months into the detention, it is the first confirmation from either government that the case exists.
Tashkent has still said nothing in public. The desk's Friday search across the Uzbek foreign ministry, the Senate and the Uzbek press returned only Kazakh coverage of the committee's reply. So Uzbekistan has been told, through the channel states use for their detained citizens; what Tashkent does with that knowledge remains unpublished.
What the file carries next will come from the case itself: a charge sheet, a court hearing, or a first word from Tashkent.