 While living abroad he wrote his book "Quvg’in" ("Exile", a trilogy), which was critical of Uzbekistan's tyrannical regime.The Uzbek government sent secret agents three times to kill Mamatov, which led to his being granted political asylum in the United States through the United Nations in February 1998.Mamatov resumed his career as a journalist in the VOA Uzbek Service, US from 1999 to 2004.