Strasbourg prohibits Ukraine from extraditing asylum seekers to Uzbekistan

On 26 July 2010 the European Court of Human Rights applied Rule 39 with respect to four asylum seekers detained by the Ukrainian authorities prohibiting extradition to Uzbekistan pending the Court’s examination. The Court also asked the Ukrainian Government to provide comments regarding adherence to the principle that asylum seekers may not be extradited until the proper procedure for appeal has been completed by 3 August, and representative of those detained by 9 August. During June and July of this year the Security Service [SBU] and Ministry of Internal Affairs [MIA] detained four asylum seekers from Uzbekistan: Umid Khamroyev, Kosim Dadakhanov, Shodilbek Soyizhonov and Utkir Akhramov. The No Borders Project reports that the men’s families have experienced pressure and persecution back in Uzbekistan. The men were detained despite having already applied for asylum, giving persecution as the reason, and before the full procedure was completed. They are still detained and other Uzbek nationals are fearful that they too will be taken into custody. It is therefore a relief that unless Ukraine chooses to openly violate the European Convention on Human Rights, and it has up till now adhered to any use of Rule 39, the men are safe. Given all the above circumstances and the number of cases where the European Court of Human Rights has stated unequivocally that extradition to Uzbekistan would be tantamount to handing a person over to be tortured, it is unfortunate that warranted concerns regarding the authorities’ plans should have arisen at all. From information provided by the No Borders Project