DEATH PENALTY: Groups Fight Uzbek Extradition

By Kester Kenn Klomegah Reprint | | Print |

Kester Kenn Klomegah

IVANOVO, Russia, Aug 16 2006 (IPS) - Russian prosecutors confirmed earlier this month that they will begin the extradition of 13 people who authorities say were involved in a May 2005 uprising in Uzbekistan. Human Rights organisations are fighting the move, saying many in the group could face torture or execution if they are sent back.

Instead, the 14 human rights organizations, including Civil Assistance, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) believe the 12 Uzbeks and one Kyrgyz are innocent and therefore should be seen as political refugees.

They issued a joint statement urging Russia to act within the UN conventions and international laws. These groups pointed out those countries like Russia which have a moratorium on death penalty are obliged to resist efforts to extradite people if they could face capital punishment. Uzbekistan routinely violates fundamental human rights, they charged.

“We are …calling on you to state firmly and unambiguously that the Russian government is obliged to observe the international agreements it has ratified, in particular, the 1951 UN Convention relating to the refugee status, the European Convention for the protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, the Convention against Torture and other norms of the international law,” the statement read.

The men are charged with funding and organising the uprising in Andijon, Uzbekistan in May, 2005. They have been sitting in jail in the town of Ivanovo, Russia, about 250 kilometres east of Moscow since June, 2005.

The Tashkent government charges the Uzbeks with providing financial assistance to a religious extremist movement Akromiylar, which is a branch of the international terrorist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, and were actively involved in organising the Andijon uprising.

The men deny all the charges. They said they were among hundreds of refugees who fled to Russia after Uzbek troops fired into an unarmed crowd.

According to an Amnesty International report, armed men attacked government buildings and military barracks May 12, 2005. They overran jails and released their prisoners. In the early hours of May 13, according to Amnesty, thousands of unarmed civilians, but some of those released prisoners, gathered in the city square demanding a more just society and an end to their poverty.

The Amnesty investigation charged that government troops eventually broke up the peaceful demonstration by firing indiscriminately into the crowd. The government denies its troops killed ordinary civilians. It said, however, 187 people died in the unrest. Amnesty puts the death toll around 400.

A lawyer for the Kyrgyz citizen, Mamirzhon Tashtemirov, said his client was in Turkey when the uprising in Andijon took place. He was arrested in Ivanovo while on a business trip, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported.

“These people are accused in fabricated cases and could face gigantic prison terms in Uzbekistan and several could even face the death penalty. The prosecutor in taking such a decision is breaking all imaginable laws, all humanitarian norms,” Yelena Ryabinina, east Asian specialist for Civil Assistance, a rights group, told IPS.

All the detainees repeatedly have asked to appear before an independent international commission that would investigate their case. Their request has been denied.

An attorney for some of the men, Svetlana Martinova, told IPS the Russian court has refused legal protection requested by the Uzbeks by giving them political refugee status.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office informed the lawyers, the Moscow’s office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the human rights organizations earlier this month that it was “satisfied” with Uzbekistan’s assurances that it would not torture or execute the men, according to press reports.

Uzbekistan has pledged to abolish the death penalty by January, 2008. Human rights groups, including Amnesty and the UNCHR said they fear executions may take place before then. They base their concerns on Tashkent’s long history of human rights abuses, an Amnesty report said.

Moreover, Amnesty said it has received reports of police detaining not only people who reasonably can be suspected of criminal activity, but also witnesses of the uprising, people who are believed to have spoken to journalists, relatives of missing people and relatives of refugees.

“I call upon the Russian authorities to stop the extradition process,” OSCE chairman Karel De Gucht said in a statement. Gucht, who is also Belgium’s foreign minister, urged Russia “to continue to work together with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to resolve this case in a manner consistent with international law.”

Vera Soboleva of the UNCHR told IPS last week that her organisation, too, is concerned about the fate of the detainees and described the extradition as “an extremely serious violation of the international principles stipulated in the 1951 Refugee Convention.”

Kremlin authorities declined to comment on questions faxed by IPS on Monday. But, the Uzbek Prosecutor General’s Office said it was satisfied with Russia’s decision to extradite their citizens.

“The Uzbek side has explained that the matter involves the criminal prosecution of people who committed especially grave crimes, and the Russian prosecutor’s office accommodated us,” the Uzbek Prosecutors said in a press release.

The Uzbek Prosecutor emphasised that the preliminary and judicial investigation into the uprising were conducted in strict conformity with national criminal procedural law.

“Along with a parliamentary commission, the preliminary investigation was also monitored by a working group composed of members of the diplomatic corps accredited in Uzbekistan,” the press release said.