Uzbekistan: Abducted Refugee on Trial

(Moscow, February 6, 2009) - An Uzbek refugee who was abducted last year in Kyrgyzstan is now believed to be on trial in Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch said today. Haiatjon Juraboev is among more than a dozen refugees forcibly returned to Uzbekistan from Kyrgyzstan since 2005.

On September 19, 2008, Juraboev, who had been granted refugee status by the Office of the  UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), was about to enter a mosque in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, when a man claiming to be a Kyrgyz National Security Service officer approached him and ushered him into a car. Juraboev's whereabouts were then unknown until January, when, according a reliable source, his mother learned he was in a Tashkent prison and was able to visit him. Human Rights Watch has learned that Juraboev is allegedly facing prosecution on charges of religious extremism and illegal border crossing in a trial that was expected to start on January 30. 

"We're very concerned about Juraboev's safety and well-being in Uzbek custody," said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Kyrgyzstan's failure to protect him is a sad reflection on the state of that country's refugee protection system."

For several years, the Uzbek government has pressured Kyrgyzstan and other countries in the region to force Uzbek refugees and asylum seekers to return to Uzbekistan. In some cases, the other countries have complied with extradition or deportation proceedings. In others, like Juraboev's, refugees are abducted, "disappear," and reappear in custody in Uzbekistan.

At least half a dozen Uzbek refugees and asylum seekers, including Juraboev, have "disappeared" from Kyrgyzstan since 2005. During that time, the Kyrgyz government has forcibly returned another dozen Uzbek refugees and asylum seekers.

"The Uzbek government has made clear it will continue to hound dissidents within and outside its international borders without letting its legal obligations get in the way," said Cartner. "The Kyrgyz government needs to confirm or deny that its National Security Service apprehended and forcibly returned Juraboev. If it was not involved, then Kyrgyzstan should protest to the Uzbek government that foreign agents operating on its soil abducted and returned an Uzbek refugee, and demand his return."

In a December 2008 letter to President Kurmanbek Bakiev of Kyrgyzstan, Human Rights Watch urged the government to stop forced returns of refugees and asylum seekers and to strengthen protections for asylum seekers while they are in Kyrgyzstan. The letter also called on the government to investigate unlawful forced returns to Uzbekistan, including Juraboev's.

Juraboev, 35, is a son-in-law of Obidkhan Alikhanov, an imam who was convicted on religious extremism charges in Uzbekistan in the early 1990s. After studying in Syria, Juraboev taught Islam in Russia.

 In 2007, the Russian government extradited Juraboev to Uzbekistan, where he was arrested but released without charge. Juraboev promptly fled to Kyrgyzstan, where he was registered as an asylum seeker by the Kyrgyz State Committee for Migration and Employment. UNHCR recognized Juraboev as a refugee in 2008. 

"Juraboev is now being tried by a court in a country that hunted him down abroad illegally," said Cartner. "Instead of colluding on abductions and unlawful returns, the Kyrgyz and Uzbek governments should be working together to bring to justice those responsible for this disgraceful abduction."