Freedom is not something that Zikrillo Kholikov takes for granted.
Freedom is not something that Zikrillo Kholikov takes for granted.
He spent most of last year in a Ukrainian prison, but Kholikov committed no crime in Ukraine.
Kholikov is one of five Uzbek men arrested in Ukraine last summer after Uzbek authorities requested their extradition.
Three of them – Umid Khamroev, Kosim Dadakhanov and Utkir Akramov – remain in the SIZO #13 detention center.
At the time of arrest, all were in the process of seeking political asylum.
Their detentions, however, raise questions among refugees and human rights groups about whether Ukraine is a safe country to seek refuge.
In 2010, 87 Uzbeks had applied for asylum in Ukraine and 13 more have applied thus far in 2011.
Between the arrests last year and the recent events in Kazakhstan, where 28 Uzbeks were extradited despite international protests, Uzbeks in Ukraine are very uneasy.
The Prosecutor General of Uzbekistan requested extradition of the men on charges of being involved with banned religious organizations, according to a statement by Nina Karpachova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman.
But human rights experts say bogus criminal charges are often used in Uzbekistan to persecute Muslims who practice outside of officially sanctioned religious groups.
Kholikov says the charges against him are baseless and that he was not even living in Uzbekistan at the time the authorities say the crimes occurred.
“It was really not possible for me to be in two places at once,” he said.
In detention, Kholikov says he was quarantined for three days without food in a filthy, overcrowded room.
Later, he lived in one cell with up to 40 prisoners and was rarely allowed outside.
He knew that if he, and the others, were sent back to Uzbekistan, they would face even more dire circumstances.
“At the minimum we would spend 20 years in prison,” he said. “It is really difficult for those who left [Uzbekistan] to try to seek asylum. In that case, people are punished just for trying to escape.”
After seven months in custody, Kholikov was released after another country granted him refugee status.
The other three men are trying to get the same recognition because, according to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), in most similar cases, those facing extradition in Ukraine were set free only after being accepted by a third country.
Ukraine’s policy on extradition stipulates that a person can be held for up to 18 months in “extradition arrest” as the case is investigated.
After a year, however, the prosecutor general’s office appears no closer to a judgment for the three Uzbeks still in custody.
“The decision is not a matter of one day,” said Yuriy Boychenko, spokesman of the prosecutor general. “It can take several months or even a year.”
But human rights experts say that Ukraine should not be considering extradition to a nation run by a dictator such as Islam Karimov.
“Ukrainian authorities have an absolute obligation not to return any individual to a country where he or she faces a credible risk of torture,” said Steve Swerdlow, the Uzbekistan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Forced return of these men would violate Ukraine’s international obligations.”
Swerdlow worked in Uzbekistan until Human Rights Watch was expelled from the country in late 2010.
He reported that persecuted individuals are routinely tortured with such methods as electric shock, beatings, sexual abuse, asphyxiation and psychological abuse.
According to the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which Ukraine ratified, nations cannot send anyone back to a place where they are likely to be tortured.
When questioned about these cases, Karpachova’s assistants responded that she is monitoring the cases of the Uzbeks in detention.
The arrests have had serious consequences for the families of those in custody.
Kosim Dadakhanov, for example, has 10 children and two wives, Hadija and Aytjan, living near Kyiv.
For a year now, they have struggled to support their family both financially and emotionally.
“The children can’t understand why their father is in prison,” Hadija said. “They know he is not a criminal.”
Persecution on both religious and political grounds is the reason that most refugees, including the three now in detention, flee Uzbekistan, according to the UNHCR.
But the experience of the jailed Uzbekis shows that Ukraine, far from being a haven, only perpetuates the persecution.
“They started to be arrested one by one exactly because they were persecuted by Uzbekistan on the grounds they indicated on their asylum applications,” said Maksym Butkevych, the public information officer for the UNHCR in Kyiv. “It looks like these people have no legal way of applying for asylum in Ukraine and not being in jail.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Alissa Ambrose can be reached at [email protected]
