The last ethnic Karakalpak with Uzbek citizenship who was facing possible extradition to Uzbekistan has left Kazakhstan for a Western country, according to the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law.
Karakalpak activist Rasul Zhumaniyazov was detained in Astana last March at the request of Uzbekistan. Zhumaniyazov had received offers from Tashkent to voluntarily return to his homeland. Apparently, the young man was on Tashkent’s list of people subject to repression for disseminating information about the July 2022 protests in Karakalpakstan, which were suppressed by the authorities.
He was one of approximately ten Karakalpaks in Kazakhstan whose extradition was requested by Tashkent, which accused them of “encroaching on the constitutional order.” However, all of them were legally residing in Kazakhstan at the time of the protests.
All of them spent a year in pretrial detention centers following Tashkent’s extradition request, failing to obtain refugee status in Kazakhstan. However, they were able to leave Kazakhstan and move to safe, developed countries.
Only one of them, Rinat Utambetov, agreed to return to Uzbekistan after spending time in an Almaty pretrial detention center, where he was convicted upon his return.
The activists’ relocation to safe countries was made possible thanks to the joint work of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law with international organizations.
Residents of the Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan protested the proposed change to the Constitution of Uzbekistan, which suggested to remove the provision allowing Karakalpakstan to secede from Uzbekistan through a referendum. Tashkent would not allow the Karakalpak people to exercise self-determination, as guaranteed by the Constitution.
Photo: bureau.kz
