REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN: Russian authorities complicit in forcibly returning hundreds of asylum-seekers and migrants to face torture

25 Apr 2016

[International Secretariat]

Region: REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN

Topic: Refugees and Migrants

The briefing, Fast-track to Torture: Abductions and Forcible Returns from Russia to Uzbekistan, examines how the Russian authorities have cooperated with Uzbekistan in hundreds of deportation cases despite clear risks that individuals could be tortured upon return.

Torture and repression in the name of security

The Uzbekistani authorities have routinely invoked the “fight against terrorism”, and combating “anti-state” activity to justify abusive prosecutions of political opponents and critics.

In 2013, Russian authorities denied an Uzbekistani extradition request for Mirsobir Khamidkariev, an Uzbekistani film producer and businessman. He was facing charges of setting up an illegal Islamist group after being overheard at an informal gathering expressing his support for women wearing headscarves.

However, in June 2014, Mirsobir was abducted and held incommunicado in Moscow before being handed over by officers of the Russian Federal Security Service to Uzbekistani security agents. He was then forcibly returned.

Uzbekistani security forces beat a “confession” out of Mirsobir, who had seven of his teeth knocked out and suffered two broken ribs before being sent to a prison camp where he spent several weeks in punishment cells.

He was later convicted on extremism offences on the basis of a forced “confession” and sentenced to eight years in jail.

In many other cases, the victims have faced unfair trials which have led to long prison sentences served in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions.

Families threatened

It is also common for the Uzbekistani authorities to harass and threaten family members to incriminate relatives or reveal a “suspect’s” whereabouts.

In January 2016, Artur Avakian was detained for four weeks and tortured until he finally incriminated his older brother, Aramais Avakian, a fish farmer, for “terrorist” acts. Police officers tied up Artur’s hands and legs, clamped electrodes to his earlobes and electrocuted him until his tongue stuck to his gums.

It is also common for the Uzbekistani authorities to harass and threaten family members to incriminate relatives or reveal a “suspect’s” whereabouts.

In January 2016, Artur Avakian was detained for four weeks and tortured until he finally incriminated his older brother, Aramais Avakian, a fish farmer, for “terrorist” acts.  Police officers tied up Artur’s hands and legs, clamped electrodes to his earlobes and electrocuted him until his tongue stuck to his gums.

Aramais’s family believe he was prosecuted because local authorities were interested in taking over his successful fish farm. He was brought into court on a stretcher after nearly five months in detention and sentenced to seven years in prison based on fabricated charges of “terrorism”.Aramais told the Dzhizakh Regional Criminal Court that he had been tortured in the attempt to force him into “confessing” to being an Islamic State sympathizer.

Relatives of those detained often fear turning to lawyers or human rights organizations for help as security forces regularly threaten to make conditions worse for their loved ones if they do so.

“Both the Uzbek and Russian authorities must put an immediate stop to torture and abductions and bring all perpetrators to justice for these abhorrent human rights violations.”

21 April 2016
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE