DUSHANBE, June 3, 2011, Asia-Plus — Ms. Anna Stavitskaya, Russian lawyer of Tajik tycoon Nizomkhon Jourayev, says the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg Human Rights in Strasbourg has sent a notice to Russian authorities to suspend a decision to deport her client.
According to her, they applied to the European Court of Human Rights on May 23 and the European Court sent a notice on May 26 to her as well as Russian authorities to suspend a decision to deport him.
Ms. Stavitskaya noted that the Russian authorities now could extradite Jourayev under no circumstances because Russia had ratified the European Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and all decisions of the European Court were now compulsory for Russia.
The lawyer is sure that criminal proceedings against Nizomkhon Jourayev were initiated by a group of persons who wanted to misappropriate his property. “That is why they misinformed the Tajik leadership of Jourayev’s case,” Stavitskaya said.
She also noted that Russia’s Supreme Court on June 2 upheld the Moscow city court’s ruling to extradite Jourayev to Tajikistan. “However, this decision of Russia’s Supreme Court does not matter because priority is given to the decision of the European Court,” said the lawyer, “Russia could not help fulfilling the decision of the European Court. I am sure the Russian authorities will not do this. There has been no case that Russia violated the decision of the European Court. Thus the European Court prohibited the Russian authorities from extraditing Haidarov, Khojayev, and Ghaforov to Tajikistan and Russia obeyed that demand.”
On the further fate of Jourayev, Stavitskaya said that he should be released. “Under the Russian legislation, he may be held in custody for 18 months, but since he was detained for further extradition, now, in connection with the decision of the European Court, this measure stands no longer and most likely, he will be released earlier. Anyway, the term of holding him in custody expires in February 2012.”
We will recall that the Moscow city court in April this year permitted extradition of Nizomkhon Jourayev to Tajikistan to face charges of organization of illegal armed formation and other serious crimes.
Moscow police detained Nizomkhon Jourayev in August 2010 upon an extradition request from the authorities in Tajikistan and in February 2011, the Russian Prosecutor-General decided that he could be extradited. Nizomkhon Jourayev has applied for asylum in Russia. His first appeal was turned down and he appealed against this decision.
Nizomkhon Jourayev has been wanted by Tajik police since 2007.
Jourayev, the former owner of a chemical plant and a distillery in Isfara, Sughd province, was also a member of the Sughd legislature. In 2007 investigations were launched into his financial activities, and later in 2008 he was officially accused of ordering assassination of former Deputy Prosecutor-General Tolib Boboyev in 1999.
Criminal proceedings have been instituted against Nizomkhon Jourayev under the provisions of eight articles of Tajikistan’s Penal Code: Article 104 – murder; Article 185 – organization of illegal armed formation; Article 186 – banditry; Article 195 – illegal storage of weapons; Article 245 – embezzlement or misappropriation; Article 262 – money laundering; Article 292 – tax evasion; and Article 340 – document forgery. Nizomkhon Jourayev left the country before his arrest warrant was issued.
On June 9, 2009, the Supreme Court of Tajikistan sentenced 31 associates of Nizomkhon Jourayev to long jail terms. They were sentenced to prison terms between 11 and 25 years, while a prosecutor in the trial of them asked for shorter terms for them.
According to Tajik law enforcement authorities, Nizomkhon Jourayev and his two brothers, Fakhriddin and Tolib, were involved in organizing the assassination of former Deputy Prosecutor-General Tolib Boboyev in 1999.
Jourayev and his associates were also charged with setting up an organized criminal group, tax evasion, and a number of financial crimes.
