Pubblichiamo la sentenza della Corte Europea dei Diritti Umani nel caso Kasymakhunov c. Russia in merito al presunto rapimento e trasferimento verso l’Uzbekistan di un cittadino Uzbeko ricercato nel Paese d’origine per rispondere all’accusa di essere membro di un’organizzazione “estremista”.
The applicant, Yusup Kasymakhunov, is an Uzbek national who was born in 1964. His current whereabouts are unknown. The case essentially concerned Mr Kasymakhunov’s alleged abduction and transfer from Russia to Uzbekistan where he had been wanted on charges of being a member of Hizb-ut Tahrir, a radical Islamic organisation banned in Uzbekistan and Russia.
Mr Kasymakhunov left Uzbekistan for Russia in 1995. He was arrested in Moscow in February 2004 and placed in detention pending extradition to Uzbekistan. The extradition proceedings were suspended pending criminal proceedings brought against him in Russia for, among other offences, aiding and abetting terrorism. He was found guilty and sentenced to seven years and four months’ imprisonment, upheld in a final judgment of January 2005. He finished serving his prison term in June 2011 but his continued detention was ordered pending the resumed extradition proceedings. His extradition was ordered by the Russian authorities in a decision eventually upheld by the courts in July 2012, but its enforcement was stayed following an interim measure granted by the European Court of Human Rights (under Rule 39 of its Rules of Court) indicating to the Russian Government that Mr Kasymakhunov should not be extradited for the duration of the proceedings before the Court. Mr Kasymakhunov was then released on 10 December 2012 as the maximum detention period allowed under domestic law had expired. On 14 December 2012, he telephoned a neighbour to say he needed to borrow a screwdriver but never turned up. His family and legal representatives have had no news of him since. According to Uzbekistan Airways he left Moscow for Tashkent (Uzbekistan) on board a regular flight on 14 December at 11.45 p.m.
Relying on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment), Article 5 § 1 (f) (right to liberty and security) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy), Mr Kasymakhunov initially complained that, if returned to Uzbekistan, he would run a real risk of being subjected to ill-treatment and that his detention pending extradition had been excessively long. His representatives added to these complaints, also referring to Article 3, alleging that Mr Kasymakhunov had been abducted and transferred to Uzbekistan against his will, that the Russian authorities must have somehow been involved in the abduction and that their investigation into the matter had been ineffective. The representatives further complained that Mr Kasymakhunov’s removal to Uzbekistan despite the interim measure indicated by the European Court of Human Rights amounted to a breach of Article 34 (right of individual petition).
Violation of Article 3 on account of the authorities’ failure to protect the applicant against a real and imminent risk of torture and ill-treatment by preventing his forcible transfer from Russia to Uzbekistan, and the lack of an effective investigation into the incident No violation of Article 5 § 1 (f)
Violation of Article 34
