CCPR/C/116/D/2198/2012
months of imprisonment. He maintains that he is innocent and that he did not commit the
crimes for which he was sentenced in 2004.
2.7
On 23 December 2011, the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian
Federation authorized the author’s extradition to Belarus in connection with his convictions
under articles 17, 209 and 210 of the Belarus Criminal Code. On 18 January 2012, the
author appealed this decision before the Moscow City Court, stating, inter alia, that he had
not committed the crimes in question and that, upon his arrival in Belarus, he would face
ill-treatment. On 20 February 2012, he submitted additional information, stating that, in the
past, he had also been persecuted in Belarus on political and religious grounds and on
account of his social status as an entrepreneur; that in Belarus he had been subjected to
psychological pressure and detained under inhuman conditions; and that he had a wife and
two small children in the Russian Federation. On 6 July 2012, the Moscow City Court
upheld the decision authorizing the author’s extradition. On 13 July 2012, the author
appealed to the Supreme Court, but his appeal was dismissed on 24 September 2012.
2.8
In the meantime, on 9 November 2011, the author applied for refugee status. On
18 November 2011, the Federal Migration Service in Moscow rejected his application,
noting in particular that he had not provided sufficient grounds demonstrating that he would
be subjected to ill-treatment if returned to Belarus. The Board also noted that the author had
applied for asylum only after his arrest on 3 November 2011, and not within 24 hours after
his initial entry into the Russian Federation in 2001. Moreover, the author had not
substantiated his claims that he had been persecuted in Belarus on political and religious
grounds and on account of his social status. On an unspecified date, the author appealed this
decision, but the appeal was rejected by the Federal Migration Service on 21 March 2012.
On an unspecified date, he appealed to the Court of the Basman District in Moscow, but his
appeal was rejected on 11 May 2012. Subsequently, on an unspecified date, the author
appealed the decision of District Court, but this appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court
on 4 July 2012. On 15 August 2012, the author applied for temporary refugee status before
the Federal Migration Service in Moscow; his application was dismissed on 11 September
2012. He appealed this decision on 22 September 2012 to the Federal Migration Service.
2.9
On 31 August 2012, a prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Presnensky
district of Moscow modified the author’s detention in exchange for the author’s
commitment not to leave the country, and the author was released.
The complaint
3.
The author claims that the Russian Federation would breach his rights under articles
7, 14, 15 and 17 of the Covenant if he were extradited to Belarus. He argues, inter alia, that
he did not commit the crimes of which he was found guilty, that he was unaware that the
criminal proceedings against him had subsequently been re-examined, and that he was
convicted twice for the same crimes. He claims that he had been ill-treated in Belarus while
in detention. He also notes that he has a wife and two children living in the State party. In
this regard, he refers to different United Nations, intergovernmental and non-governmental
reports, wherein it is stated that torture and other ill-treatment have been recorded in places
of detention in Belarus and that the conditions in places of detention are inhuman and
degrading.
State party’s observations on admissibility
4.1
On 13 December 2012, the State party challenged the admissibility of the
communication. It notes that, on 23 December 2011, the Deputy Prosecutor General of the
Russian Federation partly satisfied the extradition request issued by the Office of the
Prosecutor General of Belarus on the grounds that, on 29 March 2004, the Court of the
Sovetsky District in Minsk had found the author guilty in absentia of having committed a
3