Whether the Ukraine embraces the values of the European Union on human rights will soon be seriously tested in the coming weeks in a politically significant court case. On Jan. 14, Akbar Abdullaev, nephew of the late Uzbek President Islam Karimov, was arrested in Kyiv on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice that has since been contested. Since that time, Abdullaev has languished in the notorious Lukyanivska prison and is waiting his extradition to Uzbekistan. His case is a clear test for whether or not the Ukraine has stepped out of the shadow of its past as a lawless Soviet satellite state. Ukraine’s EuroMaidan Revolution of 2013-2014 has shown that Ukrainians do not want to revert to being dominated by Moscow and subject to the sham democracy of its oligarchs.
For many Ukrainians, former President Viktor Yanukovych’s rejection of the European Union’s Association Agreement represents a rejection of the democratic trajectory of the country with its promise of freedom and a better life for its people. Yanukovych’s buckling under pressure from Moscow has put the country’s rapprochement with the EU on hold. The popular demonstrations in December 2013 on the Maidan in Kiev which drew some 500,000 protestors continued into February 2014, leading to calls for Yanukovych’s resignation and for a new political order, based on democratic values, freedom of speech and a commitment to human rights that was not subject to the arbitrary whims of state apparatchiks. On Feb. 20, 2016, the anniversary of the Maidan protests, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko declared that the Ukraine was well on the way toward reapprochement with Europe, not only economically but also in terms of European values such as democracy, freedom of expression and the protection of human rights. But the politically motivated extradition case of Akbar Abdullaev to Uzbekistan, the first such case since Maidan, shows the future direction the Ukraine will take.
The case of Akbar Abdullaev
The extradition case of Akbar Abdullaev involves the politically motivated persecution of the 33-year-old nephew of the late Uzbek President Islam Karimov. Uzbek authorities have requested the Ukraine to extradite Akbar Abdullaev. At the same time, for more than four weeks, the court date for the hearings before the Kiev Appeals Court on whether the Ukraine can legally hold Abdullaev in custody have been postponed for the fourth time on diverse and very flimsy grounds. The judicial process at the Kiev Appeals Court has been marked by weeks of delays, requiring Abdullaev to remain incarcerated in one of the most notorious prisons in Kiev, subject to inhumane conditions, all because the court has been unable to make a judgment about the whether his detention is legal. In the meanwhile, documents have been uncovered that explain the week-long delays: the Uzbek authorities have quietly provided the Ukraine with extradition papers, which suggests that the court date was intentionally delayed until they were made available in order to open a new process that might require Abdullaev to remain in detention for up to one more year.
There is also information that the Ukrainian Intelligence Service, Sluschba bespeky Ukrajiny (SBU), is exerting massive influence on the Ukrainian judicial process, as was typical during the Soviet period, closely cooperating with the Uzbek intelligence service to ensure the expeditious deportation of Akbar Abdullaev to Uzbekistan. Abdullaev is currently being kept under inhumane conditions and is subject to 24-hour surveillance by the SBU; he is cut off from the outside world in order to avoid complicating his extradition to Uzbekistan.
Should this extradition nevertheless take place, the Ukraine will have turned its back on the Maidan revolution by supporting a politically motivated deportation that flaunts fundamental human rights and disqualifies the Ukraine for membership in the European Union. Procedurally, it is incomprehensible that the Ukraine has proceeded with this case on the basis of the Minsk Convention of 1993, rather than European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which the Kiev court and respective government agencies have seemingly ignored, although the Convention is, in fact, unconditionally binding on the Ukraine.
On Jan. 14, Akbar Abdullaev, who has been subject for years to a politically-motivated disinformation campaign carried out on the Internet, was arrested on the basis of a controverted Interpol Red Notice. To date he has been denied the opportunity to have his case heard, due to continued delays and postponements of court dates by the authorities and his isolation in detention. Despite close intelligence surveillance, Abdullaev was able to pass on hand-written notes in which he was able to explain his persecution by the Uzbek regime and their campaign of disinformation aimed at maligning him as a criminal:
“I am currently in an extraordinarily life-threatening situation as a result of a series of fabricated criminal charges. The Uzbek authorities appear to be strongly interested in “neutralizing” and defaming me, which is confirmed by the fact that I have been the political target of two successive administrations. In 2013, I was convicted on trumped-up charges by the Karimov administration. In 2016, after serving prolonged imprisonment, my criminal case was reclassified and I was eventually released. Now, the new administration under president Miriziyoyev has accused me of the exact same crimes, even through it was physically and legally impossible for me to have committed them and to which I have no connection whatsoever.:
Accusations of Uzbek authorities
Abdullaev’s international legal defense team, consisting of the prestigious Human Rights lawyer, Ben Emmerson QC, and the German Human Rights Advocate and Patron of Fair Trials International Oliver Wallasch has now succeeded in their written complaint against the Uzbek authorities with Interpol’s Commission for the Control of Files (CCF) to investigate the Red Notice that led to the arrest of Abdullaev. Uzbekistan kept silent to Interpol about the fact that the charges they brought were identical to those on which Abdullaev had already been convicted and that he was systematically tortured for two and a half years while in Uzbek custody. The Uzbek authorities also failed to disclose the fact that on Aug. 25 , three months before the adoption of the controversial Red Notice, Abdullaev had been officially released from prison by virtue of a ruling by an Appeals Court in Tashkent.
Interpol is currently in the process of examining the charges in light of the evident political motivation behind the persecution of Akbar Abdullaev by the Uzbek regime. As numerous authorities and NGOs have reported, Uzbekistan has for years made use of Red Notice tenders to illegally have political dissidents arrested by Interpol member states worldwide and charging them with serious criminal offenses, as in the case of Abdullaev. The latest accusations against Abdullaev by the Uzbek authorities are identical to the allegations upon which he was already convicted and sent to prison to be tortured. Today Abdullaev is again exposed to the real risk of being extradited to Uzbekistan and being sent to the torture chamber.
In 2013 Abdullaev was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in Uzbekistan in a secret trial without due process, charged with the crimes of embezzlement, corruption and bribery in public office at a point in time when he was still a high school student and had never held public office.
The new charges against Abdullaev are largely identical with the previous charges and contradict the prohibition against being charged with the same crime twice ne bis in idem, which the court in this case has to date ignored. Abdullaev has given the following account of the charges of the Uzbekistan prosecution.
“The government charges me with having been a “shadow leader” of a number of large corporations since 2001. This claim is absurd. In 2001, I was only 18 years old and had just graduated from secondary school. From 2002 to 2009, I worked at various companies in the tourism business, none of which had any connection whatsoever to the large public corporations for which I allegedly was, according to the Uzbek criminal investigation, a “shadow director”. Since 2009, I have worked for a company that I founded in Tashkent, OOO “Vera Future Group”, which has no connection whatsoever to the corporations I have been charged by the government with having stolen from,” he said.
Signal for the future
Ukraine became a member of the Council of Europe in 1995. In 1997, it ratified the European Convention on Human Rights. Nevertheless, until 2013, asylum seekers from Uzbekistan were regularly extradited from the Ukraine on the basis of the 1993 Minsk Convention. This was done although the practice represents a major breach of the European Human Rights Charter. The European Court of Human Rights and the UN Committee against Torture (UNCAT) agree that the extradition of individuals to Uzbekistan constitutes a breach of the European Human Rights Charter and the United Nations Convention against Torture. Uzbekistan continues to regularly violate the right to legal due process and of a defendant’s right to a fair and impartial trial as well as violating the international prohibition of torture. On the contrary, torture in Uzbek prisons is systematic and people who have fallen into political disfavor are sentenced on dubious grounds in secret trials to prolonged imprisonment without having the right to see the charges or the evidence against them and without recourse to legal counsel or defense. Given this fact, it is thoroughly alarming that Russia and Kazakhstan – and in the past, the Ukraine – have always deported asylum seekers from Uzbekistan back to that country. The court’s decision in the case of Akbar Abdullaev will show whether Ukraine opts for remaining in the shadow of its past or whether it decides for a new future for the country. Abdullaev himself hopes for a future in the Ukraine and wants, as declares in conclusion, to be able to stay in Ukraine for the future.
“I have reason to believe that if I am extradited, I will be subjected to torture and to cruel, inhuman and degrading behavior by law enforcement authorities. I’m a businessman and I wish to develop my business further. The Ukraine is a European country that holds to fundamental universal human values such as freedom and individual safety. Since I was in great danger in the Republic of Uzbekistan, I would like to stay and live in Ukraine,” he said.
Given the fact that Akbar Abdullaev will likely face torture should he be sent back to Uzbekistan, we hope that the Ukraine will adhere to its moral and legal obligations to the European Convention on Human Rights, the relevant conditions of which are prerequisites for the Association Agreement with the EU. Disregard for the European Court of Human Rights would severely tarnish the international image of Ukraine and have enormous negative consequences. If Ukraine is to fulfill its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, then it is clear that they should under no circumstances extradite Abdullaev to Uzbekistan but rather must immediately release him from prison. In fact, they should grant him asylum and thus send a strong signal that the Ukraine is oriented toward the future rather than captive to its shadowy past.
