CCPR/C/123/D/2189/2012
Uzbekistan pending the examination of his communication. On 1 October 2012, the author
was extradited to Uzbekistan, where he was convicted of fraud, robbery and murder and
sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment.
The facts as submitted by the author
2.1
The author is a karate athlete. His father and brother chaired the Karate Federation
of the City of Tashkent in Uzbekistan. On an unspecified date, the author was interviewed
relating to his participation in a world karate tournament and he mentioned that he would
not have been able to participate in the tournament without his parents’ help. In 2009, the
author’s brother was interviewed by an Uzbek television channel. He criticized the Uzbek
authorities for their unwillingness to provide financial support to sports organizations and
the misuse of funds assigned to them. Subsequently, the brother was detained for two days
and received threats from the authorities, while a number of Uzbek athletes, including the
author, were forbidden to participate in international tournaments. The author claims that
the authorities did not subject him to physical abuse at the time only because he was a
minor. In 2011, the author’s brother again publicly criticized the authorities. As a result,
fraud charges were fabricated against him and he was sentenced to nine years’
imprisonment. The author claims that his brother was forced to confess guilt under duress
inflicted by officials; however, no criminal case for the infliction of bodily injury was
opened against the officials as a result of his complaints, owing to the absence of corpus
delicti in their actions.
2.2
The author has resided in Moscow since 2009 and has regularly travelled to
Uzbekistan.2 On 22 February 2011, the Department of Interior of the Yakkasaray district in
Tashkent charged the author in absentia with fraud, under article 168 (3) of the Criminal
Code. On 23 February 2011, the Yakkasaray district court ordered his detention, again in
absentia, on the fraud charges. On 5 November 2011, the author was arrested in Moscow,
pursuant to an international search warrant issued by Uzbekistan. On 7 November 2011, the
Office of the Prosecutor of the Presnenskiy district in Moscow ordered his detention
pending extradition, with reference to the decision of 23 February 2011 of the Yakkasaray
district court. On 28 December 2011, the district prosecutor requested that his detention
pending extradition be extended for six months, until 5 May 2012. The Presnenskiy district
court granted the request on the same day. On 4 July 2012, the Moscow city court upheld
the decision on appeal. On 13 February 2012, the district court extended the author’s
detention for another six months until 5 November 2012. On 4 July 2012, the Moscow city
court upheld the decision on appeal.3
2.3
On 9 December 2011, the Office of the Uzbek Prosecutor General requested the
author’s extradition on the fraud charges. On 30 March 2012, the Office of the Russian
Prosecutor General granted the extradition request based, inter alia, on assurances by the
requesting party that the author would not be subjected to torture or inhuman treatment
upon return. The author appealed, claiming that he would be subjected to torture and
inhuman treatment in Uzbekistan. On 9 July 2012, the Moscow city court rejected his
appeal as unsubstantiated, in particular based on the Uzbek assurances. The author appealed,
referring to international sources confirming the widespread and systematic use of torture in
Uzbekistan and the findings of the European Court of Human Rights that assurances should
2
3
2
According to the decision on file of the Federal Migration Board of 16 March 2012, the author has
been living in Moscow without registration as a migrant since 24 November 2010 and was therefore
in violation of the migration legislation.
According to the decision of the Moscow city court of 4 July 2012, the author’s counsel challenged
the court decision of 3 May 2012 to extend his detention on the grounds that, in particular, the court
had not indicated which specific extradition measures that were being taken and would be taken
before 5 November 2012 would justify the extension of the author’s detention for such a long period
of time; that the Minsk Convention regulates extradition matters before an extradition order is issued
but not up to when a person is extradited; that article 109 of the Russian Criminal Procedure Code
does not specify the circumstances for extending detention pending extradition after receipt of an
extradition request and the issuance of an extradition order; that the extradition request was received
from Uzbekistan over one month after the author’s detention, in violation of the Minsk Convention
and the author’s constitutional rights; and that therefore the author should be released.