Rights groups welcome Russian decision on 13 Andijan suspects

Human rights activists have welcomed Russia’s decision to halt the extradition of 13 Uzbek nationals wanted on terrorism charges following protests in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan last year. The group’s lawyer had appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, citing concerns over the possibility of torture and execution. “We very much welcome the decision of the General-Prosecutor’s office to halt the extradition. However, it is troubling to me that it took the intervention of the European Court to bring about this change,” Alison Gill, director of Human Rights Watch in Moscow, said. “There should never have been a decision to extradite in the first place,” Gill said following Tuesday's decision. Russia had an obligation not to return people to countries where they faced possible torture, she said. Maisy Weicherding, a researcher with Amnesty International’s Eurasia team in London, said its concern was that the group would be tortured if returned to Uzbekistan. “Nevertheless, this is only a temporary suspension of the extradition order. My concern is that they could still be extradited,” Weicherding said. Under Russian law an extradition request could not be processed while an appeal was pending, the General Prosecutor’s office said. Memorial, the Russian rights group helping the group, said the 13 men had filed a petition to the European Court asking it to halt the extradition. “The lawyer asked the court…to take urgent measures to stop the extradition of her clients to a country where they could be threatened by torture and the death penalty,” the Moscow-based group said. Uzbek authorities want to put the men on trial for their alleged involvement in last year’s violence in Andijan, where rights groups believe up to 1,000 people were killed on 13 May when security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters. Tashkent maintains the death toll was 187 but has refused to allow an independent investigation. More than 400 Uzbeks who fled to Kyrgyzstan were given refugee status by the office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and airlifted to Romania in July 2005. Tashkent tried to exert pressure on the Kyrgyz government to extradite them for alleged terrorist activities. Dr Aaron Rhodes, executive director of the International Helsinki Federation (IHF) in Vienna, said it was pleased that the European Court had blocked the extraditions but many questions remained. Memorial said only one of the 13 was in Uzbekistan at the time of the Andijan protests, and they were at home. Rhodes said that while Tashkent alleged the group helped finance the protests the Russian prosecutor had gone further, contrary to the available facts, and claimed the men were there. He said the group should be freed and sent to safe countries because they had been recognised as refugees by the UNHCR. “One of the 13, however, is actually a Kyrgyz citizen named Tashtemirov and has not been declared a refugee. The Kyrgyz authorities did nothing on his behalf,” Rhodes said. On 9 August Kyrgyzstan extradited five other Uzbek nationals accused of involvement in the Andijan protests from the southern city of Osh. The UNHCR issued a sharp rebuke, describing the move as "a violation of international laws".