Dear ladies and gentlemen,

Citizen of Uzbekistan Mr. Khairullo Tursunov is under serious threat to be extradited from the Republic of Kazakhstan back to his home country.

For more than seven months he has been detained in the city of Aktobe in Aktobe region. In addition, the General Prosecutor of Kazakhstan made a decision to satisfy a petition to extradite the Uzbek refugee Mr. Khairullo Tursunov.

Kazakhstan’s leadership has repeatedly violated its international obligation not to extradite refugees to states that violates laws and widely practices torture. For example, Kazakh authorities extradited 29 asylum seekers to Uzbekistan in 2011. It was done at the request of the Prosecutor General of the country, despite the high level of protest from a large number of human rights organizations and individuals around the world.

According to information from Uzbekistan, they all were subjected to inhuman torture during interrogations and were sentenced to long prison terms. We are convinced that the same tragic fate awaits Mr. Khairullo Tursunov, if he is passed into the hands of sadistic interrogators in Uzbekistan.

Mr. Tursov’s lawyer Kenes Zhysypov says that in April 2012 the Kazakh side received a decision (from January 18, 2012) and determination (from February 24, 2012) of city court of Karshi, Uzbekistan, which showed that Mr. Tursunov was wanted not on the decision of investigative officer, but on the determination of court, though both of them contradict the law.

Decision of the investigative officer was made based on the appeal of S.Sharipov and R.Babayev, chairpersons of mahalla (local community) committees “Nukrobod” and “Kuchkak”, from August 18, 2011, who appealed the law enforcement agencies of Kashkadarya region to initiate a criminal case against several persons, but Mr. Khairullo Tursunov’s name was not on that list. Based on this appeal investigative officer opened a criminal case under Article 223, part 2, paragraph “b” of the Criminal Code of Uzekistan. In this decision, without any reasons to it, the investigative officer charges Mr.Tursunov under the Article 244-2, part 1 of the Criminal Code.

Moreover, judge of the Karshi city court charged Mr.Tursunov with five more articles from the Criminal Code: Article 155, part 1, Article, 156, part 2, paragraph “d”, Article 159, part 2, paragraphs “a” and “b”, Article 216, Article 223, part 2, paragraph “b”, which the investigative officer initially did not refer to. After this, Mr. Khairullo Tursunov became a person, who allegedly committed crimes under six articles of the Criminal Code.

In all court processes of the first and second instances, lawyers proved the groundlessness of charges brought against Mr.Khairullo Tursunov, but the judge did not accept the valid arguments of defense and left him under arrest. In April, Mr.Tursunov was arrested and imprisoned for a period of one month under Article 534, part 1, of the Criminal Procedural Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

On the case of crossing the state border of the Republic of Kazakhstan by Mr. Tursunov in 2012, it was decided not to open a criminal case according to Article 37, part 1, of the Criminal Procedural Code of the country, as a result of amnesty. On the fact of finding and confiscating from him a book in Arabic, mobile phones, flash memory cards, which contained religious audiotapes in Arabic, it was decided not to initiate criminal proceedings according to Article 37, part 1, of the Criminal Procedural Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, due to the lack of evidence.

Despite all this, law enforcement agencies of Kazakhstan are considering this case very formally, and thus, are showing their solidarity with their Uzbek colleagues, who are waiting for the extradition of Mr. Khairullo Tursinov in order to deal with him on their own way.

We have to appeal to you, influential international organizations, asking to intervene into the case of this innocent person, and save him from the authorities of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

We want to remind that the 23-year long rule of President Islam Karimov has turned Uzbekistan into a country, where the practice of brutal torture and humiliation of human dignity became daily norm in police departments, investigative bodies and penitentiary facilities. This is convincingly proved in the reports by UN Committee against Torture (2002 and 2007), by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Mr.Theo van Boven (2003), and their 22 recommendations to eradicate this social evil, which are still ignored by the Uzbek government.

All the world’s human rights organizations without exception have been stating about the total repressive nature of the political regime in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan and its leadership are annually ranked lowest in various rankings of political systems in the world.

In international politics, the Uzbek government has long been playing a role of a political victim of some internal and external forces, which, in their opinion, constantly threaten the existing constitutional order in the country. For the past 15-20 years, this policy has thrown thousands of innocent young people to prisons, and hundreds of them found their death as a result of cruel torture.

This is the internal effects of the above-mentioned policy of the government of Uzbekistan. Its external effect is the Uzbek authorities managed to convince a number of Western governments and international intergovernmental organizations of the world to its cruel lies.

Russia is another country that massively extradites refugees from Uzbekistan on request of the Uzbek authorities. We are convinced that it is time to put international pressure to the governments of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation to ensure that they decrease their collaboration with the authorities of Uzbekistan on the issue of extraditing Uzbek refugees.

With high respect,

Mutabar Tadjibayeva, President of the International
Human Rights Organization “Fiery Hearts Club”.
Contacts: 7 Square Brassens 91600, Savigny sur orge France
mutabartadjibaeva@gmail.com
Mob: +33679233927
Office: +33950147243
Website: http://www.jarayon.com/

Talib Yakubov – Honorary President of the
International Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan
16, rue Marcel Pajotin, Angers, 49000, France
Tel. +33(o)241667961
e-mail : vbaelleon@gmail.com