Fears rising over fate of two refugees wanted by Russia
Kyiv Post journalist Svitlana Tuchynska writes that although international law forbids Ukraine from sending them back, one has disappeared from a Kyiv detention center while the other was so severely beaten in custody he slipped into a coma.
One of the detainees, a former taxi driver from Ingushetia in Russia’s North Caucasus region, Magomet Nalgiev, spent 14 months in Kyiv’s Lukyanivske pre-trial detention center. Wanted in Russia, he is not accused of any crime in Ukraine and has been recognized as a refugee by Finland.
Nalgiev disappeared almost two weeks ago and, according to diplomatic sources, is now in Kharkiv, a usual stop for detainees being extradited to Russia
Ethnic Chechen Umar Abuyev also fears extradition to Russia.
On Aug. 3, he was severely beaten in the Lukyanivske pre-trial detention center. His lawyer, Oleh Levytskyy is worried he could be sent back to Russia, despite a ruling by the European Human Rights Court banning Ukraine from extraditing him.
Read on here http://kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/fears-rising-over-fate-of-two-refugees-wanted-by-russia-311314.html
Photo of Oleh Levytskyy © Ganna Bernyk