Justice post factum: Russian court declares deportation of Muminov unfounded

On 29 November 2006 Judge of the Tverskoy District Court in Moscow A.A. Sevalkin on a second review of the administrative case against Rustam Muminov under Article 18.8 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation (violation by a foreign national of the regime for being in the RF) handed down a ruling terminating proceedings in the absence of a crime.

At the court hearing witnesses were questioned and documents studied confirming the unlawfulness of the previous ruling handed down on 17 October 2006 by Judge N.A. Makarova who took the decision to deport Muminov from Russia.

The court thus acknowledged that the “interdepartmental operation” involving subdivisions of the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the prosecutor’s office of two subjects of the Federation – the Lipetsk region and Moscow on detaining baker Rustam Muminov, from the moment of his release from the Lipetsk SIZO [remand centre] on 29 September 2006 right up to his being handed over to the Uzbekistan authorities on 24 October 2006, was entirely unlawful.

It should be noted that Federal Judge Makaorova was obliged and able to study the same material and question the same witnesses, however failed to do so for reasons unknown at the present time.

The Human Rights Centre “Memorial” and the Civic Assistance Committee consider it necessary to seek to have this issue put before the relevant qualification panel since the ruling passed by Judge Makarova on 17.10.2006 to have Muminov extradited had grave, possibly irreversible, consequences for him.

Rustam Muminov, whose extradition was requested by the Uzbekistan authorities on fabricated charges of belonging to the party “Hizb-ut-Tahrir” [1], spent 6 months in the Lipetsk SIZO-1 and was released on 29 September after the Prosecutor General turned down the extradition request.

After the ruling on deporting Muminov because of his lack of registration, passed down by Judge Makarova, the European Court of Human Rights applied Rule 39 to halt Muminov’s deportation to Uzbekistan.

Nonetheless the Russian Security Service carried out the deportation under the guise of administrative removal.

In parallel with the Muminov case events continued to develop on another case involving extradition of individuals requested by the Uzbekistan authorities.

On 28 November the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the decisions made by the RF Prosecutor General to extradite the “Ivanovo Uzbeks” still in Russia, where a halt on their extradition has been imposed by the European Court of Human Rights (cf. http://khpg.org/1164814985)

If one considers these two cases together, the conclusion is clear that at the present time in issues involving extradition from Russia to Uzbekistan only those whose violated rights are no longer able to be “repaired” can hope for justice.

Yelena Ryabinina, Head of the Program to assist political refugees from Central Asia of the Civic Assistance Committee

[1]   Since there is no proof that Muminov was a member of the party, the issue needs no discussion here, but for those interested, a very good article is available by Alexander Verkhovsky “Is Hizb-ut-Tahrir http://xeno.sova-center.ru/6BA2468/6BB4208/6CDCAE5 (translator’s note)