Aktobe regional court of Kazakhstan ruled to extradite asylum seekers Khairullo Tursunov back to Uzbekistan. According to his lawyer, a special convoy from Uzbekistan is expected to come to take him to Tashkent.

On January 18, 2013, Aktobe regional court held a hearing on the case Khairullo Tursunov, asylum seekers from Uzbekistan. Our sources in the country reported that the court was to be held on January 17.

But after Tursunov wrote a letter requesting permission to participate personally at the hearing, and provide him with an interpreter, the hearing was postponed to one day.

Unlike the municipal court, the regional court did not provide Khairullo Tursunov with an interpreter.

During the hearing, Tursunov told the court that he had not committed any crime in Uzbekistan, and that all charges against him were unfounded allegations of the Uzbek authorities.

Khairullo Tursunov, who has been held in the detention center of Aktobe city for the past nine months, is accused of calling for jihad in Uzbekistan, and being member of banned religious extremist organization.

In addition, he is accused of being one of the activists in Jamaat, founded in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Tursunov’s lawyer, Kenes Dzhusupov, asked the judge to release his client, as he would face torture and ill-treatment in Uzbekistan.

The hearing lasted for three hours and the judge Nurilya Satibaldina issued a verdict not to uphold the request of lawyer not to send Khairullo Tursunov to Uzbekistan.

This is the second incident when the Kazakh authorities send asylum seeker to Uzbekistan, thus violating the requirement of the UN Committee on Torture of not sending asylum seekers to countries, where torture is systematic.

In June 2011, Kazakhstan extradited 29 Uzbek refugees to Uzbekistan that resulted in severe criticism from international human right groups. Despite this, after some time, three more refugees from this group were also handed to the Uzbek authorities.

After this incident, the UN Committee against Torture issued a statement that said, by handing over 29 refugees to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan violated its international obligations in the field of human rights, more precisely, two articles of the International Convention against Torture.

In Uzbekistan, torture is widely used by the authorities and has a systematic character. Thus, according to international human rights organizations, extradition of asylum seekers to this country is prohibited.

All 29 refugees extradited from Kazakhstan have been sentenced to long years in prison in Uzbekistan. Previously, based on its source in the country, “Jarayon” reported the inhuman treatment and torture applied to these 29 refugees in Uzbek prisons.