A former Uzbek diplomat was convicted of treason on Thursday in a case largely viewed as a test for the new president’s commitment to clean up Uzbekistan’s notoriously corrupt legal system.

In the trial held behind closed doors in the capital of Tashkent, prosecutors argued that retired diplomat Kadyr Yusupov, 68, had divulged state secrets of the Central Asian nation.

His family and defence insisted that Mr Yusupov, who has a long-standing history of mental illness, had a psychotic episode when he blurted out to authorities over a year ago that he was a spy.

Mr Yusupov, who was deputy head of mission at the London embassy from 1999 to 2002, threw himself under a train in the Tashkent metro in December 2018 but survived with broken ribs and a concussion.

Once at hospital, he told officers responding to the incident that he was a Western spy. His relatives said that he was not in his right mind and that he has suffered severe episodes of schizophrenia.

The former diplomat was nevertheless swiftly arrested and charged with treason.

Mr Yusupov later claimed that he was tortured and that his security service interrogators had repeatedly threatened to rape him and commit sexual violence against his female relatives.