European Court Blocks Extradition of Uzbek Refugee

A ruling by the European Court of Human Rights against the extradition of an Uzbek refugee from Russia has been hailed as a successful precedent for the handling of such cases. 

In late July, the court ruled that the Russian authorities had breached the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms by taking steps to send Abdumutallib Karimov back to Uzbekistan.

Karimov was an eyewitness to the May 2005 violence in Andijan, in which security forces opened fire on a demonstration, killing and injuring several hundred, according to independent reports. The Uzbek govt says about 200 people died.

Karimov later fled to Russia and applied for refugee status, but was detained in the city of Yoshkar Ola in 2008 in response to an Uzbek request for his detention as an alleged participant in what is characterised as an armed uprising.

Russian prosecutors ordered the extradition to go ahead without awaiting a final decision on Karimov’s application for refugee status.

In making its ruling, the Strasbourg court took into account information provided by the Russian mission of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which confirmed that Karimov would be at risk of abuse if he was repatriated.

According to Yelena Ryabinina, who heads the Right to Asylum programme in Moscow, “Forcibly returning Abdumutallib Karimov to Uzbekistan would lead to a breach of article 3 of the [European] convention as he would face a grave risk of torture.”

The European court reminded the Russian authorities that any detention must be lawful, in light of the fact that Karimov spent three days under arrest without court sanction and was not afforded effective and accessible legal protection.

Human rights defenders have welcomed the ruling as a vindication of their own efforts.

“Our actions make it easier to ensure such individuals are not extradited,” ”, Surat Ikramov, head of the Tashkent-based Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Defenders, said. “Human rights activists in other countries have recently helped us to halt the extradition of many Uzbek citizens. All human rights groups, here and abroad, have expressed concern about the use of physical and psychological torture in Uzbekistan”.

Human rights activists recall another recent case where the Strasbourg Court blocked the extradition of four Uzbek citizens – Umid Hamroev, Qosim Dodokhonov, Shodilbek Soibjonov, and Otkir Akromov – from Ukraine who had fled Uzbekistan because they feared persecution.

“The Ukrainian authorities will now be required to consider the applications of these detainees properly, and will not be able to extradite them until the end of this process,” Ryabinina said.

On August 5, one of the four detainees was released; it is unclear which.

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