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Activists targeted by Uzbekistan face ‘torture’ if deported from Kazakhstan [1]

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Date: 2023-11

Exiled activists from Uzbekistan could face persecution back home if they are extradited from Kazakhstan, human rights campaigners have warned.

Five activists from Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic in Uzbekistan, were arrested and detained in Kazakhstan last year in the wake of the Uzbek government’s violent suppression of unrest in the region – unrest that they deny involvement in.

The protests erupted in Nukus, Karakalpakstan’s capital, after the republic’s autonomy came under threat from the central Uzbek authorities. At least 21 people died and 240 were injured after police violently broke up the demonstrations, according to Human Rights Watch.

As the Uzbek authorities pursued those they deemed responsible for the unrest, they also sent out extradition requests for the five exiled activists, who were then detained in Kazakhstan in 2022.

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In the last two months, all five of the activists have been released from their pre-trial detention centre in Kazakhstan, after the one-year legal detention period ended.

Four of them have now had their refugee applications denied by the Kazakhstani authorities, leaving them with little protection if Kazakhstan decides to approve an extradition request by Uzbekistan.

The fear is that the Karakalpak activists “could face torture and forged trials if sent to Uzbekistan,” Andrei Grishin, a spokesperson for the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights, told openDemocracy.

“We know this from previous practice of how the Uzbek authorities have treated their opponents, and those arrested earlier for protests in Karakalpakstan,” Grishin said.

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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/karakalpakstan-activists-uzbekistan-kazakhstan-torture-refugee-status/

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