- Update info:
- 30 Mar 2018 (Suspended)
- Latest info:
- 9 Aug 2017 (Updated)
- 27 Mar 2017
- Country:
- RUSSIAN FEDERATION
- Subject:
- Khudoberdi Nurmatov (also known as Ali Feruz)
Gender m/f: m
- Period:
- 30 Apr 2018
- Distribution date:
- 27 Mar 2017
- UA No:
- 061/2017
Journalist and activist Khudoberdi Nurmatov (also known as Ali Feruz) is at risk of being forcibly returned from Russia to Uzbekistan. Friends and supporters are worried that he could be abducted by Uzbekistani security forces. He is at risk of serious human rights violations, including torture, if returned to Uzbekistan.
Khudoberdi Nurmatov, an Uzbekistani asylum-seeker and journalist who lives and works in Moscow, is at risk of being forcibly returned under fast-track administrative measures to Uzbekistan. There he would be at risk of serious human rights violations, including torture. Khudoberdi Nurmatov writes for the independent newspaper Novaia Gazeta under the pseudonym Ali Feruz, covering issues that include disability rights, and the rights of refugees and migrants from Central Asia. He has also been an activist with Amnesty International since 2015.
Khudoberdi Nurmatov was detained by police on 16 March, charged with administrative offences relating to his migration status in Russia. He is an Uzbekistani national, but was born in Russia where he spent his childhood before moving to Uzbekistan. He was forced to flee Uzbekistan in 2009 after he was detained and tortured by officers of the Uzbekistani National Security Service for refusing to secretly collaborate with them. Khudoberdi Nurmatov applied for temporary asylum in Russia and he consequently has the right to be in Russia until a decision has been taken on his status and all appeal processes exhausted.
Following Khudoberdi Nurmatov’s arrest, his lawyers were not given access to him for several hours, by which time he was feeling very unwell and was running a high temperature. He was taken to hospital in an ambulance, accompanied by one of his lawyers. He remains in hospital and is being treated for an acute infection. After his transfer to hospital in the evening of March 16th, he was released from custody on the condition that he would present at the police station if summoned. No date has been fixed for a court hearing on his administrative charges but his lawyers are concerned that it could be in the next few days.
Supporters of Khudoberdi Nurmatov who gathered outside the police station were concerned that Uzbekistani security officers might attempt to abduct him. They noted the presence of an unmarked black car, which was seen leaving the police compound shortly after the ambulance left to take Khudoberdi Nurmatov to hospital. Amnesty International has documented numerous instances of refugees, asylum-seekers and labour migrants being abducted from Russia by Uzbekistani security forces with the complicity of Russian security services.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Amnesty International’s research has found that hundreds of asylum-seekers, refugees and labour migrants have been abducted or forcibly returned from Russia to Uzbekistan since 2014 in blatant violation of Russia’s international human rights obligations. Short of resorting to complicity in the abduction of individuals, the Russian authorities have sought other ways to circumvent their international obligations and have used administrative means, such as deportations for administrative offences, to return individuals to Uzbekistan where they face a real risk of torture. The numbers of those forcibly returned to Uzbekistan via administrative means are in their hundreds. Many of them have tried unsuccessfully to apply for asylum with the Russian authorities. The Russian authorities have continued to accept at face value assurances from their Uzbekistani counterparts that individuals will not be tortured upon return to Uzbekistan, and have failed to conduct effective investigations into any of the cases of abductions of Uzbekistan nationals in Russia that have been raised with them. For additional information see the report Uzbekistan: Fast-track to torture: abductions and forcible returns from Russia to Uzbekistan (https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur62/3740/2016/en/) and Amnesty International’s Submission to the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers: Garabayev V. Russian Federation (No.38411/02) Group of Cases (https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur62/5839/2017/en/).
If returned to Uzbekistan, Khudoberdi Nurmatov will, like many before him, be at real risk of incommunicado detention, torture or other ill-treatment, and unfair trial. If imprisoned in Uzbekistan, he would face a long prison term in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions.
Further information on UA: 61/17 Index: EUR 46/5905/2017 Issue Date: 17 March 2017
- Update info:
- 30 Mar 2018 (Suspended)
- Latest info:
- 9 Aug 2017 (Updated)
- 27 Mar 2017
- Country:
- RUSSIAN FEDERATION
- Subject:
- Khudoberdi Turgunalievich Nurmatov (also known as Ali Feruz)
Gender m/f: m
- Period:
- 30 Apr 2018
- Distribution date:
- 9 Aug 2017
- UA No:
- 061/2017
On 1 August, the Moscow Basmanniy Court ruled that openly gay journalist and activist Khudoberdi Nurmatov (also known as Ali Feruz) must be forcibly returned from Russia to Uzbekistan. If returned, he will be at risk of torture and imprisonment for his sexual orientation. The journalist has nine days to appeal the decision.
Novaya Gazeta newspaper correspondent and civil society activist Khudoberdi Turgunalievich Nurmatov, better known under his journalist alias Ali Feruz, was stopped by police on 1 August, purportedly for ID checks. The journalist, who is openly gay, produced his press card but the police officers detained him and took him to Basmanniy district police station where he was accused, under part 3.1 of Article 18.8 of the Russian Code of Administrative Violations, of “violation of the rules of entry or stay in the Russian Federation by a foreign citizen”. He was then taken to Basmanniy Court in Moscow. The judge issued Khudoberdi Nurmatov a 5,000 rouble (USD 80) fine and ruled that he must be forcibly returned to Uzbekistan. The journalist was arrested in the court room and taken to a deportation centre in Moscow. He was given ten days to appeal the decision. If deported to Uzbekistan, Khudoberdi Nurmatov is at risk of serious human rights violations, including torture, and will face prosecution and, if convicted, imprisonment for his sexual orientation (consensual sex between men is a crime in Uzbekistan).
At the hearing, the journalist insisted that he was not violating Russian immigration law and that for the past three years he had been repeatedly trying to receive asylum in Russia, and appealed the latest refusal. He was born and spent his childhood in Russia, and after graduating from a Russian school he went to Uzbekistan where he got his citizenship but very soon returned to Russia and enrolled in university. He said his stay in Russia was lawful and that his mother, sister and brother are Russian citizens. The police however claim the journalist has been in the country unlawfully since 2011 and that his latest appeal against the asylum refusal had not been accepted by court (of which, it transpired, Khudoberdi Nurmatov had not been informed of).
Amnesty International has documented numerous instances of forcible returns of migrants from Russia to Uzbekistan, including abduction and secret rendition of asylum seekers and refugees by security forces.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Khudoberdi Nurmatov, born February 1986, writes for the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta under the pseudonym Ali Feruz, covering issues that include disability rights, and the rights of refugees and other migrants from Central Asia. He is an Uzbekistani national but was born in Russia where he spent his childhood before moving to Uzbekistan. According to Khudoberdi Nurmatov, he was forced to flee Uzbekistan in 2009 after he was detained and tortured by officers of the Uzbekistani National Security Service for refusing to be their secretly informant.
According to a work colleague Elena Kostiuchenko, Khudoberdi Nurmatov was detained near a music school where he attended singing classes and it appears that the police were waiting there for him.
Earlier this year, on 16 March, Khudoberdi Nurmatov was detained by police and charged with administrative offences relating to his migration status in Russia. At that time, Khudoberdi Nurmatov had his application for temporary asylum in Russia still under consideration. Consequently, he had the right to be in Russia until a decision would be taken on his status and all appeal processes exhausted, and was released. Later, the journalist learnt that his asylum application had been refused. He filed an appeal against the refusal at Zamoskvoretsky district court in Moscow. The court refused to consider the appeal, but failed to notify Khudoberdi Nurmatov of this at his address. This refusal only transpired to Khudoberdi Nurmatov from police, at the hearing on 1 August.
Amnesty International’s research has found that hundreds of asylum-seekers, refugees and labour migrants have been abducted or forcibly returned from Russia to Uzbekistan since 2014 in what constitutes a blatant violation of Russia’s international human rights obligations. Short of resorting to complicity in the abduction of individuals, the Russian authorities have sought other ways to circumvent their international obligations and have used administrative means, such as deportations for administrative offences, to return individuals to Uzbekistan where they face a real risk of torture. Many of those forcibly returned to Uzbekistan have tried unsuccessfully to apply for asylum with the Russian authorities.
The Russian authorities have continued to accept at face value assurances from their Uzbekistani counterparts that individuals will not be tortured upon return to Uzbekistan, and have failed to conduct effective investigations into any of the cases of abductions of Uzbekistan nationals in Russia that have been raised with them. For additional information see the report Uzbekistan: Fast-track to torture: abductions and forcible returns from Russia to Uzbekistan (https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur62/3740/2016/en/) and Amnesty International’s Submission to the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers: Garabayev V. Russian Federation (No.38411/02) Group of Cases (https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur62/5839/2017/en/).
If returned to Uzbekistan, Khudoberdi Nurmatov will, like many before him, be at real risk of incommunicado detention, torture or other ill-treatment, and unfair trial. If prosecuted and convicted in Uzbekistan, he would face a long prison term in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions.
Further information on UA: 61/17 Index: EUR 46/6865/2017 Issue Date: 2 August 2017
- Update info:
- 30 Mar 2018 (Suspended)
- Latest info:
- 9 Aug 2017 (Updated)
- 27 Mar 2017
- Country:
- RUSSIAN FEDERATION
- Subject:
- Khudoberdi Turgunalievich Nurmatov (also known as Ali Feruz)
Gender m/f: m
- Period:
- 30 Apr 2018
- Distribution date:
- 30 Mar 2018
- UA No:
- 061/2017
On 15 February, Ali Feruz was released and arrived in Germany a few hours later. The release came after the Supreme Court’s decision on 25 January to uphold the activist’s appeal and overturn the 2017 decision to deport him to Uzbekistan. Ali Feruz had been detained since August 2017 for supposedly violating the terms of his stay in Russia.
On the morning of 15 February, Novaya Gazeta journalist and Amnesty International activist, Ali Feruz (born Khudoberdi Nurmatov) was taken to Sheremetyevo airport, in Moscow, under police escort, where he boarded a plane at 11:20am to Frankfurt, Germany. On 20 February, it was reported that he received a refugee status.
On 22 January, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation rescinded an earlier decision to extradite Ali Feruz to Uzbekistan and two days later, upheld the activist’s appeal, overturning the 2017 decision by a lower court to deport him to Uzbekistan. In its decision, the Supreme Court noted that the detention of a foreign national pending expulsion from Russia “should not be understood as grounds for detaining them for an indefinite period”. The Court sent the case back for consideration to the Moscow City Court. On 2 February, the Moscow City Court granted Ali Feruz permission to leave Russia for a third country, taking into consideration the fact that he had had a travel document from the International Committee of the Red Cross and a German visa allowing travel to Germany.
Ali Feruz told Amnesty International on 6 March that he is still adapting to life in Germany. His plans are to continue his work of activism and journalism. He says he does not plan to take a long break, as he hopes to be useful in a rapidly changing world. He holds that Amnesty International’s campaign, with others, played a crucial role in his release and is grateful for the support.
Ali Feruz was arrested and detained in Moscow in August 2017, for supposedly violating the terms of stay on the territory of the Russian Federation. On 21 November 2017, the Basmannyi Court of Moscow found him guilty, and ruled that he should be deported back to his home country. Ali Feruz fled Uzbekistan in 2009 after allegedly being detained and tortured by the Uzbek security services, who attempted to make him their secret informant.
Thank you to all those who sent appeals. No further action is requested from the UA network.
This is the fourth update of UA 61/17. Further information: www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur46/7567/2017/en/
Further information on UA: 61/17 Index: EUR 46/8094/2018 Issue Date: 23 March 2018