Law enforcement agencies in Karshi city tried to intimidate a lawyer of the Uzbek refugee Khairullo Tursunov, who was extradited from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan this spring. Meanwhile, Tursunov’s relatives complain about lack of money to pay the lawyer’s services.

“Jarayon”s sources in Uzbekistan reported that the refugee Khairullo Tursunov, extradited from Almaty to Tashkent in March this year, is now in prison located in Shaykhali village near the city of Karshi.

– Two or three days ago his relatives were able to pass him a peredacha (package of food and clothes to inmate – Jarayon). They hired a lawyer, who asked for copies of Khairullo’s passport from his sisters. He promised to deal with all the paperwork, talk with the investigator, and organize a meeting for them with their brother.

They are now waiting. What can I say about his condition? It is not good, of course. He is being accused of very serious crimes. And in fact he did not commit them. He is a very simple guy. He would not hurt even a fly. He is just a very religious person, who does the prayers. He relatives are experiencing financial problems. They need money to pay the lawyer, – said our source in the country, who is close to Khairullo Tursunov’s family.

Meanwhile, one of the Uzbek refugees currently residing in exile in Europe says that the police in Karshi tried to intimidate Khairullo Tursunov’s lawyer.

– Investigators are not allowing Tursunov to meet with his relatives. The policemen told to lawyer not to interfere in this case. But the lawyer did not refuse to defend Tursunov. He said he would take the case despite the fact that the police tried to intimidate him, – says the Uzbek refugee.

38-year Khairullo Tursunov is a Muslim believer from Karshi city of Kashkadarya region, Uzbekistan. He was detained in the city of Aktobe in April 2012 in train en route from Kazakhstan to Russia to see his family.

The Kazakh police arrested Tursunov as he was wanted by the Uzbek security agencies. The Uzbek authorities charged him with terrorism, attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, and membership in a jamaat, established in Almaty, and requested the authorities of the neighboring country to extradite Khairullo Tursunov.

Previously, people, who knew Tursunov, told to “Jarayon” that Khairullo Tursunov did not commit any serious crimes, and the Uzbek security services persecuted him because of his wife Nodira Burieva, who was forced to leave Uzbekistan due to the persecutions and intimidation from the National Security Service of Uzbekistan because of her religious beliefs. According to our sources, the Uzbek security forces wanted to capture Nodira Burieva by arresting her husband Khairullo Tursunov.

After his arrest in Kazakstan, Tursunov was held in the detention center in Aktobe city for almost a year. Then he was transferred to detention facility in Almaty. While Tursunov was in Kazakhstan, rights organizations, France-based international human rights organization “Fiery Hearts Club” sent an individual complaint on behalf of Tursunov to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. On February 28, Mutabar Tadjibaeva, head of the “Fiery Hearts Club” received a reply from UNHCHR, which stated that the individual complaint on Tursunov’s case was accepted, and that he should not be extradited to Uzbekistan during the consideration period of the complaint.

However, despite the requirement of the United Nations, on March 13, 2013, the Kazakh authorities extradited Khairullo Tursunov to Tashkent. This is not the first time that the government of Kazakhstan violates its international obligations and sends Uzbek refugees to Uzbekistan, where torture and abuse of religious prisoners is systematic.

In 2011, the Kazakh authorities handed 29 religious Uzbek refugees, arrested in Almaty, to Uzbekistan. Uzbek authorities accused them of very serious crimes. Now many of them are in prison in Uzbekistan and complain about the torture and abuse by prison guards.

Mutabar Tadjibayeva, head of the international human rights organization “Fiery Hearts Club”, speaks about the importance to establish how Kazakhstan became a member of the UN Committee on Human Rights.

– I believe that a lot of things will clear up immediately if we find a country that nominated Kazakhstan to the UN Committee on Human Rights. Of course, this will not help the refugees, who are being tortured in Uzbek prisons. However, I think it’s very important to find a powerful state that supports Kazakhstan, which obviously violates the international laws, – says Mutabar Tadjibayeva.