Help Lema Susarov from Chechnya

Ukraine: Chechen refugee at risk of Torture from Russia

The Ukrainian authorities are preparing to forcibly return 25-year-old ethnic Chechen refugee Lema Susarov to the Russian Federation, where he would be at risk of torture and other serious human rights violations.

Ukraine is a state party to the Refugee Convention and the UN Convention against Torture, each of which prohibits the return of anyone to a situation where they would be at risk of torture.

Lema Susarov was recognised as a refugee by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, in 2006. According to the UNHCR, he arrived in Ukraine at the end of that year. The Russian Federation called for his extradition on 16 February, on charges of robbery(typical Russian lies), and he was detained in Ukraine on 20 July 2007.

Lema Susarov registered as an asylum-seeker in Ukraine with the Kyiv City Migration Service on 8 August 2007, although the decision to extradite him had been taken by the Office of the Prosecutor General on 27 July. Under international law, no recognised refugee or person seeking asylum may be forcibly returned to a situation where their life or freedom would be at risk. The Ukrainian authorities appear ready to ignore this, and return Lema Susarov to the Russian Federation. They have extradited registered asylum-seekers before now.

Background

Many Chechen men have been tortured and ill-treated by the Russian security forces to extract so called 'confessions'. Amnesty International and other human rights organisations working in the region are concerned that many Chechens in the Russian Federation have been charged with crimes such as participating in illegal armed groups or acts of terrorism, on the basis of such 'confessions', extracted under torture.

There are further allegations that trials of Chechen suspects have been flawed and have relied on fabricated evidence. The Chechen Ombudsperson for Human Rights, Nurdi Nukhazhiev, reportedly stated in February 2006 that a large number of the convicted Chechens in prison in Russia had been falsely accused and that the majority of their cases should be re-examined. So far, there have been almost no investigations leading to prosecutions of law enforcement officials for torture, which has created a climate of impunity in the region.