DUSHANBE, July 15, 2011, Asia-Plus -- The Tajikistani authorities have asked the Russian authorities to extradite Ismon Azimov from Russia for “organization of a criminal group,” suspecting that he is a member of the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).  Ismon Azimov would be at serious risk of torture or other ill-treatment if returned to Tajikistan, a statement issues by Amnesty International on July 13 said.

In recent years Amnesty International has been told of people who were extradited or otherwise returned to Tajikistan by the authorities of other countries being tortured or ill-treated.  Detainees accused of "Islamic extremism" are at particular risk of torture or ill-treatment in Tajikistan.

Ismon Azimov was arrested in Russia on November 3, 2010.  On June 29, 2011, his lawyer was informed that the Deputy Prosecutor General had decided to extradite him.  Moscow Regional Court is set to review an appeal against this decision on July 19.

Ismon Azimov has applied for asylum in Russia.  At the end of June the Federal Migration Service of Russia turned down his appeal against an earlier decision by the Moscow Region Department of the Federal Migration Service denying him refugee status.  His lawyer is preparing to appeal to Moscow''s Basmanyi District Court. Ismon Azimov may be at risk of extradition even before his appeal is considered.

His lawyer and the NGO Institute for Human Rights in Moscow, which had invited the lawyer to represent Ismon Azimov and has followed the case closely, maintain that he has no association with the IMU.  The accusations outlined in an official document issued in 2009 that the Tajikistani authorities submitted to their counterparts in Russia as part of the extradition request, include a claim that he was involved in military training and propaganda for the IMU in October 2007.  His lawyer told Amnesty International that at that time Ismon Azimov was in Moscow, where he had lived since 2002 and traded in dried fruit.  He had only visited Tajikistan occasionally during the summer months to work on the harvest.