December 8 – Day of the Constitution of the Republic Uzbekistan. The Day of the Constitution, which is being used by the Uzbekistan authorities only for their needs. The Constitution in Uzbekistan in reality hasn’t been observed.

 I, Khatam Khadzhymatov, citizen of Russian Federation of Uzbek origin, address the international community, governments and parliaments of the democratic states with the appeal to exert influence on the governments of the Russian Federation and Republic of Uzbekistan, whose policy leads to the serious violations of the human rights.

 We have considerable grounds to claim that the rights of any person accused of involvement in the Andijan events of May 13, 2005, in the case of his/her extradition to the Uzbek authorities will be seriously violated.  The huge risk of using tortures, unfair trial and subsequent conviction for long-term imprisonment is the objective reality of Uzbekistan nowadays. The court trial on first 15 defendants that has recently taken place in Tashkent is the best prove for this.  It became the sad farce that clearly proved there wouldn’t be any fair trial on such charges in Uzbekistan of Karymov.

         The large-scale use of tortures towards those on trial and the executions without court decisions in Uzbekistan are also well-known. This is confirmed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms. Louise Arbour and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Mr. António Guterres. Moreover, the capital punishment is not abolished in Uzbekistan. 

While the international democratic community bends every effort to save the refugees from Andijan, the Russian Federation keeps in the prison on trumped up charges those people that were on its territory. Moreover, the Russian authorities make effort to extradite to Uzbekistan the citizen of the Russian Federation and even deprive him of the Russian citizenship through the court.       

On June 18, 2005 in Ivanovo 14 ethnic Uzbeks were detained as the result of the joint operation of Russian and Uzbek special services. The names of all 14 people, among which 12 are the citizens of Uzbekistan, a citizens of Kyrgyzstan and I – the citizen of Russia, were reported to Tashkent. After the charge on participation in the events of May 12-13, 2005 in Andijan, involvement in the so called “extremist religious group Akramia” and event funding of the “terroristic” activities in Uzbekistan were fabricated. The Uzbek Persecutor General sent the request for our extradition to Russia.          

We strongly reject these charges. We and our lawyers have many proves of our innocence. However, the Geenral Persecutor of the Russian Federation doesn’t wish to carry out any investigation on the brought accusations, referring to the fact that such an investigation is not foreseen by the Convention of 1993 “On legal aid and legal relationship on civil, family and criminal cases”  concluded by a range of CIS countries.

As a citizen of Russia I was released from custody, because the Constitution of the Russian Federation prohibits the extradition of Russian citizens. However, basing on the false information from Uzbekistan the court made the decision to recognize my citizenship as illegitimately obtained. The repeat arrest was inevitable, but I managed to escape to Ukraine and ask for refuge there.          

Other 13 my fellows are still under arrest. During the detention the health of some of them much worse, they need the medical checkup and inpatient treatment.

 In August all of  them asked for political asylum in the Russian Federation. On November 11 it became known that the Federal Migration Service of Russia made the decision to prolong till February 11, 2006 the term of examining their petitions for granting status of refugees.

                Below there are the names of  those people:

Citizen of Kyrgyzstan – Mamirjon Tashtemirov

Citizens of Uzbekistan:

-Ilkhomjom Ismailov

 -Obboskhon Makhmudov

-Iskaderbek Usmanov

Sadorbek Ulugkhodjaev

Abdurauf Muhamadsobirov

Izzatulla Muhamadsobirov

Kabul Kasimhudjaev

Mahmud Rustamhodjaev

Umar-ali Alimov

Shukurali Sabirov

Rustam Naimov

Hurshid Khamzaev           

All of us want only one thing – objective and independent judicial inquiry of the charges brought by the Uzbek side. We are sure that under this condition those charges will be completely dismissed. But we can count on such a court neither in Uzbekistan, nor in Russia.  

I call for the international community to advocate my friends and to address the government of the Russian Federation with the following demands:       

—     To release 13 ethnic Uzbeks currently kept in the prison of the city of Ivanovo and to guarantee them the possibility to freely leave for a third country of their choice;

 —     To further the immediate conduct of the unbiased international investigation of the accusations against the ethnic Uzbeks detained in Ivanovo;

 —     To oppose the extradition of the ethnic Uzbeks detained in Ivanovo to Uzbekistan, where they can be subjected to tortures and capital punishment;

 —     To meet the international commitments, including the UN  Convention against tortures  and the European Human Rights Convention, according to which Russian Federation must abstain from the extradition of anyone to in the country, where the rights of that person might be seriously violated;

 —     To grant immediately to all the convicts the opportunity to see their relatives and lawyers of their choice.

 In conclusion let me reassure you once again of my highest respect and to express the gratitude to all those, who paid attention to my appeal.  

Khatam Kahdzhymatov December 7, 2005