“Jarayon” received information that an Uzbek refugee Shuhrat Musin, who went missing Bishkek, capital city of Kyrgyzstan in February 2013, was sentenced to eight years in prison by a court in Andijan city, Uzbekistan.

According to Shuhrat Musin’s wife, Barno, who talked to “Jarayon” in a telephone conversation on December 17, her husband, who went missing in February of this year in the center of Bishkek, was taken to trial during the last week of November in Andijan.

– The state-provided lawyer called me and said that the trial of my husband was held on November 20. But he did not tell me what articles have been brought against him. He only said that “Shukhrat was convicted on several articles.” Unfortunately, I could not participate in the trial, because I am a citizen of Kyrgyzstan and now live with two small children in my parent’s home in Jalalabad [Kyrgyzstan]. As the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border is closed, we were not able to go to Andijan, – said Shukhrat Musin’s wife Barno.

It was the Uzbek refugees living in Bishkek who informed “Jarayon” first, on December 14, about Shukhrat Musin’s trial and conviction in Uzbekistan. According to them, the news about refugee’s trial alarmed the Uzbek refugees in Kyrgyzstan, who are awaiting resettlement in third countries. Because of fear, many of them decided to go leave to Turkey.

Uzbek citizen Shukhrat Musin was granted a refugee status by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bishkek. He was waiting for his family to join him in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, but went missing. “Jarayon” learned about Musin’s missing on February 18 from Uzbek human rights activist Farhodhon Mukhtorov, who is now living in one of the European countries as a refugee.

– Shuhrat received a call to his cellphone. After that call, he went out and never came back home, – said the human rights activist.

29 -year-old Shukhrat Musin was born in Jalalabad, Kyrgyzstan, but grew up and lived in neighboring Andijan of Uzbekistan. In 2008, he was forced to leave his home due to persecutions from local intelligence services, who charged him under Article 159 (“attempting to overthrow the constitutional order in Uzbekistan”) of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan, and accused of membership in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), extremist organization banned in all Central Asian countries.

However, according to relatives and friends of Musin, he receive the attention of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan after he and his friends watched videos about the Andijan events in 2005 recorded on CD disc.

In October 2010, Shukhrat Musin was detained in Bishkek by the employees of the State National Security Committee 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 and has since lived in the Kyrgyz capital.

In July 2009, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Kyrgyzstan recognized Mussin as a refugee and granted him a certificate.

When Shuhrat Musin went missing in February 2013, human rights activists expressed concerns that he could have been stolen by Uzbek security services operating in Kyrgyzstan.

On April 12, one of the relatives of Mussin told to “Jarayon” that Shuhrat was in Uzbekistan, in one of the prisons of Andijan. Later this was confirmed by his wife Barno.

Head of the international human rights organization “Fiery Hearts Club”, Mutabar Tadjibayeva, stated that in detention Shuhrat Musin could be subjected to inhuman treatment and torture, widely practiced in Uzbek prisons.

– Kidnapping of the Uzbek refugee Shuhrat Mussin, who had refugee mandate issued by the Bishkek office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, by security services of Uzbekistan. I think, is nothing but the betrayal of people who believed in UN and trusted their fate. Despite the fact that Musin had a refugee certificate, the Uzbek security services could quietly kidnap him from Kyrgyzstan and put him into jail in Andijan, and after take him to trial by fabricating charges against him. I’m sorry that, despite the fact that human rights activists and journalists are alarming about these issues, no positive changes are happening in this area.

Recently, Tavakkalbek Hojiev, resident of Andijan who had been in prison for witnessing the bloody massacre in 2005, died of torture behind the bars. Like Musin, he too was a refugee in Kyrgyzstan until the Kyrgyz side handed him over to Uzbekistan. Special services brought his lifeless body to his family home early in the morning and forced relatives to bury him immediately. And all this proves once again that the Uzbek authorities do not even try to conceal their crimes.

Shukhrat Musin’s family did not know for a long time about his whereabouts and, therefore, was not able to provide him a good legal protection. This has led to the fact that he became the victim of an unfair trial.

It is not just the government of Uzbekistan, which carries out its crimes with the help of special services, and the Kyrgyz authorities, who strongly support their Uzbek colleagues, but also UNHCR office in Kyrgyzstan that has a responsibility in kidnapping of Shuhrat Mussin from Kyrgyzstan.

Today, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Russia have become dangerous countries for Uzbek refugees. Authorities in these countries collaborate close with their Uzbek colleagues in kidnapping the refugees and sending them back to Uzbekistan, despite the lack of evidence proving their guilt. It forces Uzbek refugees to look for safer countries.

I believe that the UNHCR should admit their mistakes in this regard and undertake the necessary reforms, – said Mutabar Tadjibayeva.

Previously, a number of human rights organizations have stated that the Uzbek security services abduct the Uzbek refugees from other countries, and that this practice was widespread.

In a recent interview to “Jarayon”, Russian human rights activist Yelena Ryabinina said, “… the authorities use any means at their disposal to send the person to a country that seeks them for charges that are often politically motivated.”

Oybek UMAROV