CASE OF MUKHITDINOV v. RUSSIA
Violation of Article 3 - Prohibition of torture (Article 3 - Extradition) (Uzbekistan);Violation of Article 3 - Prohibition of torture (Article 3 - Effective investigation;Positive obligations);Violation of Article 5 - Right to liberty and security (Article 5-1 - Lawful arrest or detention);Violation of Article 5 - Right to liberty and security (Article 5-4 - Speediness of review);Violation of Article 34 - Individual applications (Article 34 - Hinder the exercise of the right of petition);Non-pecuniary damage - award (Article 41 - Just satisfaction)
Dmitry Dedov;Erik Møse;Julia Laffranque;Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos;Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque;Ksenija Turković
9. The applicant, Mr Lutpiddin Bakhritdinovich Mukhitdinov (a.k.a. Sattarov, see below), was born in 1967 in the Uzbek SSR of the USSR. He claims to have lived in Uzbekistan until 1992 when he left for Saudi Arabia. 10. Since 1997 the applicant has been living in Russia. In 2001, he acquired Russian nationality and changed his name to Sattarov. 11. On 7 May 2013 the Tyumen division of the Federal Migration Service determined that the applicant had obtained Russian nationality by fraud and cancelled his Russian passport. On 25 December 2013 the Tyumen Regional Court upheld, in the final instance, the decision of the Migration Service. 12. According to the letter from the police chief in Namangan, Uzbekistan, dated 8 April 2013, the applicant forfeited his Uzbek nationality because of his unaccounted absence from the country for more than five years. 13. On 7 May 1998 a criminal case was instituted against the applicant in Uzbekistan on the charge of illegal crossing of the Uzbek State border, an offence under Article 223 of the Uzbek Criminal Code. 14. On 15 December 2009 further charges were levelled against the applicant under Article 159 § 3 of the Uzbek Criminal Code (“Infringement of the constitutional order of Uzbekistan”) and Article 242 § 1 (“Organisation of a criminal enterprise”). The charges related to the applicant’s alleged participation in the religious terrorist organisation The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (Wahhabii); he was suspected of meeting with its representatives during his stay in Saudi Arabia and of spreading the ideas of the organisation. 15. On 16 December 2009 the Namangan Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant. 16. On 30 June 2013 the applicant was arrested in Tyumen, Russia. 17. On 2 July 2013 the Kalininskiy District Court of Tyumen issued a detention order valid until 30 July 2013. On the latter date the District Court extended the authorised detention period until 30 December 2013. The extension was upheld by the Tyumen Regional Court on 15 August 2013. 18. On 11 December 2013 the Russian Prosecutor General approved the applicant’s extradition in relation to the offence of organising, and taking part in, the activities of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an extremist organisation (Article 244-2 § 1 of the Uzbek Criminal Code). It was noted that “the [applicant’s] extradition ... in relation to the extremist charges ... cannot be regarded as an obstacle for extradition since no procedural decision was taken in this respect by the competent Russian authorities” and further that the Uzbek authorities had provided “diplomatic assurances that [the applicant] ... would not be subject to torture, violence, other cruel or degrading treatment”. 19. On 26 December 2013 the District Court approved a further extension of the detention period until 30 March 2014. The applicant challenged the extension before the Regional Court, claiming that the maximum detention period in case of a medium-gravity offence, for which his extradition had been approved, was set by law at six months. By decision of 13 February 2014, the Regional Court quashed the extension order of 26 December 2013, finding that the District Court did not give any specific reasons for extending the applicant’s detention, and remitted the detention matter to the District Court. It directed that the applicant should remain in custody until 24 February 2014. 20. In the meantime, on 21 January 2014 the Tyumen Regional Court upheld the extradition order as being lawful and justified. The court noted that the Uzbekistan Prosecutor’s Office provided the appropriate assurances, that the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no information capable of preventing the applicant’s extradition, that the Russian Federal Security Service had no information about the applicant’s persecution in Uzbekistan for political motives and that counsel’s allegations of a real risk of illtreatment or torture in Uzbekistan were “unsubstantiated” (голословные). 21. On 21 February 2014 the District Court issued a new extension order by which the applicant’s detention was extended until 30 March 2014. The applicant challenged it on the same grounds as before. On 11 March 2014 the Regional Court granted the applicant’s complaint and released him from custody, finding that by virtue of Article 109 of the Code of Criminal Procedure his detention could not have been extended beyond the initial sixmonth period. 22. On 19 March 2014 the Supreme Court rejected at final instance the applicant’s challenge to the decision on his extradition to Uzbekistan. It stated that the arguments about a real risk of torture and political persecution were “unconvincing”. 23. In the early morning of 22 July 2014 the applicant was taken away from his home by seven uniformed officers of the Federal Migration Service. The applicant’s lawyer arrived immediately on the scene and attempted to follow them but was stopped by the traffic police. 24. When the applicant’s wife and son arrived at the local office of the Migration Service later on that day, they were told that he had already been released. 25. On 27 July 2014 the applicant’s representative before the Court sent a faxed letter to the Federal Security Service, the Border Control and the Prosecutor General’s Office, asking them to stop the applicant’s unlawful transfer to Uzbekistan. She stated that she had information that the applicant was detained in a police ward in Tyumen and that he might be placed on the next flight to Tashkent. 26. Further to the Court’s request for factual information (see paragraph 7 above), on 7 August 2014 the Government replied that the applicant’s current whereabouts were not known, that he had not been detained or transferred outside of the Russian territory by State agents and there was no information about him crossing of the State border. 27. On 20 August 2014 the Tyumen Regional Prosecutor’s office advised the applicant’s representative as follows: “As regards [your] allegation about an unlawful arrest of Mr Mukhitdinov, I inform you that on 22 July 2014 the officers of the Tyumen regional branch of the Federal Migration Service conducted, in accordance with the approval plan on combating illegal migration, checks in the places where foreign nationals and stateless persons live, including the premises of a mosque at 9, Zhdanova street, Tyumen. Following the check, three persons, including Mr Mukhitdinov, were brought to the immigration control department. Upon identification, he was released. According to the information provided, Mr Mukhitdinov (Sattarov) was not arrested by the police on 22 July 2014 or any other date; the police has no information about his whereabouts.” 28. On 1 September 2014 the Tyumen Regional Prosecutor’s office additionally informed the counsel that on 25 August 2014 the Tyumen Regional Investigations Committee instituted a criminal case into the applicant’s disappearance.