It turns out that a refugee from Uzbekistan Shuhrat Musin, who disappeared two months ago in the capital of Kyrgyzstan where he asked asylum from UNHCR, is being kept in prison of Andijan, Uzbekistan.

On April 12, one of the relatives of Shukhrat Musin told to “Jarayon” on the phone interview that the lost Uzbek refugee was detained in the city of Andijan.

– Shukhrat’s cousin, who lives in Andijan, was jailed for 15 days. Upon his release, he contacted Shuharat’s parents, who now live in exile in America, and told them that their son was being held in the basement of the same prison. Then Shuhrat’s parents told about it to his wife Barno and her older brother Islam. However, despite the news that Shukhrat is in Andijan prison, Barno wants to stay in Bishkek and continue searching for him, – said relative of Shukhrat Musin.

29-year-old Shukhrat Musin, who disappeared on February 18 in Bishkek, is originally from Andijan city. People, who closely knew Musin, told to “Jarayon” that on that day someone called Shukhrat on his mobile phone, and then he went out and never came back.

Shukhrat Musin had a refugee status granted by the Bishkek office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The Uzbek authorities charged him with crimes provided in Article 159 (“encroachment on the constitutional order”) of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan, and also accused of membership in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). However, relatives of the refugee claim that the Uzbek security services began persecuting Musin for viewing with friends the CD disk about the Andijan massacre of 2005.

Due to the persecution of National Security Service of Uzbekistan, in 2008 Shukhrat Musin had to leave the country and flee to neighboring Kyrgyzstan. Since then, he and his family lived in Bishkek.

In October 2010, Shukhrat Musin was detained in Bishkek by the officers of the State Committee for National Security of Kyrgyzstan on the extradition request of the Uzbek authorities. But in February 2011, after the intervention of UNHCR in Bishkek and several human rights organizations, Musin was released.

After the mysterious disappearance of Shukhrat Musin in Bishkek, his wife, who lives in Bishkek along with their two minor children, addressed the Police Department of the Sverdlovsk district of Bishkek asking for help.

In a telephone conversation with “Jarayon” in March, Barno Musina said that she also addressed the prosecutor’s office and the State Committee for National Security. She also visited all the hospitals and morgues in Bishkek searching for her husband.

– But no one knows anything about my husband. He is gone, – said then Barno Musina.

However, she said that the officers of the Police Department of the Sverdlovsk district of Bishkek promised to give her phone call records of Shukhrat for February 18.

But this time “Jarayon” was unable to reach Barno Musina. Her phone did not answer the repeated calls of our journalist. However, a source close to her told us that policemen did not fulfill their promise.

Previously, several human rights activists have suggested that Shukhrat Musin could have been kidnapped by the Uzbek security services. Their assumptions were based on the fact that Abdurauf Rakhmonov, Uzbek refugee who came to Kyrgyzstan in 2012, went to his hometown Kokand, Uzbekistan, and was reportedly interrogated by the Uzbek security officials.

Moreover, previously there have been several cases of disappearances of Uzbek refugees in post-Soviet countries.For example, in December last year refugee from Andijan Yusuf Kasymakhunov went missing in Russia.

Recently Moscow-based Human Rights Center “Memorial” reported that Kasymakhunov was extradited from Moscow to Tashkent. He was sent to Uzbekistan on the plane of the “Uzbekistan Airways”. Currently, Russian human rights activists are concerned of possibility that the Uzbek refugee is in Andijan prison and may be subject to severe torture.

Many human rights groups believe that in both cases the Uzbek refugees were kidnapped by the security services of Uzbekistan, and security agencies of the countries, where the Uzbek refugees resided, assisted them in this.

– Today everyone violates the rights of Uzbek refugees. Kazakhstan did not obey the international laws and gave refugees to Uzbekistan, and the Kyrgyz authorities provide all conditions for free movement of the Uzbek security services in the country. The same situation can be observed in Russia. To tackle this issue, I believe that we must not only express our dissatisfaction to the authorities of Uzbekistan, but more often alert the international community about the inhuman policy of those country that create all the conditions for quietly kidnapping the refugees.

First, the fact that Shukhrat Musin, who went missing in Bishkek two months ago, was found in Uzbekistan, to be more precise – in Andijan, proves that the Kyrgyz side became accomplice to the offenses of Uzbek government. Second, Musin has already been a victim of torture used in prisons in Uzbekistan, – said Mutabar Tadjibayeva, head of the International Human Rights Organization “Fiery Hearts Club”.