DUSHANBE, April 4, 2012, Asia-Plus – An international human rights organization, Amnesty International (AI), is concerned over disappearance of Tajik refused asylum seeker Nizomkhon Jouryaev.
According to a statement released by Amnesty International on April 3, Nizomkhon Jourayev was released from a Russian detention facility on March 29. He has not been seen since. He is a citizen of Tajikistan, and there are fears that he has been abducted by Tajikistani security services with the intent of forcibly returning him to Tajikistan. If returned to Tajikistan, he is at risk of torture, ill-treatment and an unfair trial.
“On March 29, Nizomkhon Jourayev’s lawyer was unofficially informed that her client would be released from detention. She immediately went to the detention center IZ/ 50-12, near Moscow, where Nizomkhon Jourayev was being held but was told he had already been released. Nizomkhon Jourayev has not been seen since. His family in Tajikistan have reportedly not heard from him either. There are fears that he has been abducted with the aim of forcibly returning him to Tajikistan.”
We will recall that Moscow police detained Nizomkhon Jourayev on August 27, 2010 after three years of evading arrest.
Nizomkhon Jourayev has been wanted by Tajik police since 2007. He was a successful businessman who owned the chemical plant in the northern city of Isfara. 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.
Last year, Nizomkhon Jourayev applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to rule on violations of his rights to freedom from torture, his rights to liberty and security and effective remedy under Articles 3, 5 and 13 of the ECtHR. Amnesty International says the ECtHR on November 24, 2011 applied interim measures under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court preventing Nizomkhon Jourayev from being sent back to Tajikistan until the ECtHR had ruled on his case. Immediately after Nizomkhon Jourayev’s disappearance his lawyer informed the ECtHR about the situation. The ECtHR has requested that the Russian authorities provide their comments on the situation before April 2.
