On Feb. 20, the Appellate Court in Kyiv was scheduled to hear the case of Akbar Abdullaev, the nephew of the late Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who is being held in custody by the Ukrainian authorities on politically motivated charges by the Uzbekistan government in an extradition case that had already been postponed on questionable grounds four other times.
On Jan. 14, Akbar Abdullaev was arrested in Kyiv based on an Interpol Red Notice that has since been contested. The Appellate Court hearing was postponed again on Feb. 20 and rescheduled for the afternoon of Feb. 21 at 2:00 p.m.
Once more, the reason given for the delay was the lack of a court translator. Prior to the scheduled Appellate Court date, a second court case against Abdullaev to decide whether he has to remain in custody while his extradition to Uzbekistan authorities is being determined, scheduled for 11 a.m. on Feb. 20, was also postponed on short notice.
The Appeals Court judges do not want to comment on their most recent postponement. Nor are they prepared to answer whether the fundamental legal rights guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights will be taken into account in their upcoming decision. The defendant was not present at either of the two hearings involving him.
In the afternoon, events took an even more bizarre turn, as the renowned Ukrainian Human Rights Lawyer and legal expert Markiyan Halabala, has described. The defendant was illegally and unexpectedly taken by force from his prison cell by the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, and placed in an undisclosed maximum security prison of the Ukrainian secret service.
This information was confirmed by the General Prosecutor’s Office to Abdullaev’s lawyer, Halabala. The General Prosecutor’s Office based this decision on security reasons. Abdullaev’s legal counsel, lawyer Markiyan Halabala, has made the following statement:
“According to the decision of Solomyansky district court of Jan. 16, Abdullaev shall serve the temporary arrest in the Kyiv pre-trial detention center No. 13 until Feb. 22. However, on Feb. 20, he removed from there. Upon preliminary information, Abdullaev has been illegally transferred to the Security Service of Ukraine detention center, all of which is situated at Askoldiv alley in Kyiv.
Abdullaev should probably have long since been released from prison, since the Minsk Convention, which was applied in the case provides for a provisional detention period of 30 days rather than the 40 days prescribed by Ukrainian law. Since the arrest and the process have proceeded according to the terms of the Minsk Convention, it is unclear why Abdullaev is still being held in custody.
The strange and most recent turn of events appears to confirm the suspicion that the SBU has been exerting its nefarious influence in the legal process, making it highly unlikely that Abdullaev will get a fair trial. Rather, as in Soviet times, the Ukraine seems to be disregarding basic rights to due process and the right to a fair and impartial trial. The fact that Adbullaev has been taken to a state prison an undisclosed location, without the protection of defense lawyers who have not been told where he is much less given the opportunity to see him, is an ominous sign. This is a grand miscarriage of justice in which the European Convention of Human Rights and basic regard for individual liberty is being trampled under foot.
