Khairullo Tursunov, Uzbek asylum seeker from in detention in Kazakhstan, is being sent to Almaty. Kenes Dzhusupov, Tursunov’s lawyer, told about it to “Jarayon”.

“On February 20 this year, Tursunov will be sent to Almaty via train Oral-Almaty. Head of the detention center, where Tursunov is kept, informed me about this in a phone conversation. I do not know why he is being sent to Almaty”, said lawyer Kenes Dzhusupov.

He added that before Uzbek prisoners used to be deported to Uzbekistan directly from Aktobe But in Tursunov’s case authorities want to send him to Almaty.

On January 18 of this year, Aktobe Regional Court upheld the decision of the Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan on extradition of asylum seeker Khairullo Tursunov to Uzbekistan.

In its turn, the Kazakhstani Bureau for Human Rights called upon the authorities to suspend Khairullo Tursunov’s extradition to Uzbekistan.

“10 days ago we have openly declared to the Kazakh authorities that Tursunov’s case is just the same as the case of 28 Uzbek refugees, who were extradited from the country in 2011. We have urged the authorities not to extradite Khairullo Tursunov to Uzbekistan, where torture is systematically used. We hope that decision to send the asylum seeker Tursunov to Almaty is related to our appeal to the authorities of Kazakhstan”, said Denis Dzhivaga, lawyer at the Bureau.

In 2010, the human rights organization ACAT – France (Association of Christians against the Death Penalty and Torture), based in Paris, sent a complaint to the UN Committee against Torture on behalf of the extradited 28 Uzbek refugees. The complaint had evidences that, if extradited to Uzbekistan, all 28 refugees would be subject to severe torture and inhumane treatment.

However, despite this, in June 2011, all 28 refugees were handed to the Uzbek authorities. On June 1, 2012, the UN Committee against Torture ruled that Kazakhstan, by sending the Uzbek refugees to Tashkent, breached its international obligations in the field of human rights.

At present, the international human rights organization “Fiery Hearts Club,” based in France, is working on the individual complaint of Khairullo Tursunov.

Mutabar Tadjibayeva, head of the organization, intends to send it to the UN Committee against Torture. Tadjibayeva is concerned that the Kazakh authorities can again breach their international obligations and extradite Tursunov to Tashkent.

“The authorities of Kazakhstan informed that their representative visited in Uzbek prisons, met with the extradited refugees and received their statements that said they had not been tortured, and sent these documents to the UN Committee against Torture.

By this act, the Kazakh authorities became complicit in crimes of the Uzbek authorities – they helped them hide their crimes. There is no guarantee that the Kazakh authorities will not do the same in Khairullo Tursunov’s case”, says Tadjibayeva.

The human rights activist hopes that the election of Kazakhstan to the UN Council on Human Rights may have a positive impact on Tursunov’s case. She is confident that in Uzbekistan Tursunov will be subject to torture and forced to give evidences against many innocent people.

“If Tursunov is extradited to Uzbekistan, he will be tortured and forced to give false evidences against innocent people that will be used in slandering them. This will lead to opening of new criminal cases against people, who have not committed any crime,” said Tajibaeva.

It must be noted that the Uzbek asylum seeker Khairullo Tursunov has been kept in detention center of Aktobe since April 2012.

Uzbek authorities are accusing him of terrorism, attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, and membership in a jamaat, established in Almaty.

In 2003, the Uzbek government imprisoned KhairulloTursunov with the same charges – terrorism and attempting to overthrow the constitutional order. Then, Tursunov and 18 other believers were sentences to 12 years allegedly for participating in a terrorist organization.

However, in 2004, Khairullo Tursunov was amnestied and freed from prison. However, even after the release, the intelligence and law enforcement agencies continued persecuting and pressuring him.

In August 2009, Tursunov was libeled and put in custody for 10 days. During the interrogation, investigators of the National Security Service tortured him and made him tell the location of the human rights activist Gaibullo Jalilov.

When he was freed from detention center, Khairullo Tursunov went to Russia and asked asylum there.

But in December 2009, due to the continuous persecution of the Uzbek authorities, Nodira Burieva, Tursunov’s wife, was forced to leave the country with a small child, and go to Almaty. After some time, Khairullo Tursunov joined his family in Almaty. There, the family appealed to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) asking for asylum.