Russian Citizen Jailed for "Treason" in Uzbekistan

A military court in Uzbekistan has handed down a 16-year prison term to retired colonel Yury Korepanov after convicting him of illegal border crossing and “treason against the motherland”, even though he is a Russian national.

Korepanov, 63, served in Uzbekistan’s military, but moved to Russia and took out citizenship after retiring in 2002. After visiting his son who still lives in the Uzbek capital Uzbekistan, he was arrested at passport control while travelling overland to Kazakstan on his way home to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

Nothing was known of the case until the trial took place in January 11.

The state-run media in Uzbekistan did not cover the case, while about this case, while reports in Russia spoke of a “spy scandal”. A member of the Russian parliament, Alexander Burkov, pledged to secure the release of a “colonel detained for espionage”.

Legal experts in Uzbekistan lawyers say many questions about the case remain unanswered.

“If he was a Russian citizen, how could he be charged with treason against the motherland, in other words Uzbekistan?” a human rights defender in Tashkent asked.

Since the trial was held behind closed doors, it has been impossible to establish the basis for the charges. The spokesperson for Uzbekistan’s prosecution service, Svetlana Artykova, told NBCentralAsia she was not authorised to comment unless “superior agencies” agreed to this.

Korepanov’s location is unknown, but rights defenders say he is likely to have been put in a detention facility at Bekabad, 160 kilometres from Tashkent, which is used to house former military and security agency staff when they are convicted.

This article was produced as part of IWPR's News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.