Juraev [Dzhurayev], Savriddin
See also Nizomkhon Juraev and Murodzhon Abdulkhakov in this database.
Who, Why and How exiled: Attended a mosque in Tajikistan from 2002 to 2005, under the tutorship of Mr S. Marufov. (Case of Savriddin Dzhurayev v. Russia. Judgment, European Court of Human Rights April 25, 2013). Marufov was detained and died in detention in May 2006 after reportedly being ill-treated. In 2006, twenty seven year old cleric Savriddin Juraev fled Tajikistan after the authorities associated him with banned Islamist organisations. (Amnesty International, 2013).
Stage 1 details (accusations/ charges/ Interpol notice/ extradition requests): Juraev was arrested in Moscow, 2009, under an extradition request from the Tajik authorities- founded on accusations of Juraev ‘destabilising the political situation’. Juraev was seven years old at the time when a criminal conspiracy named "Bayat" in 1992 was formed, and which later joined the IMU. However, he was charged having taken part in forming this group. Juraev was also charged with involvement in an armed attack carried out in September 2006 on three members of the regional parliament. A warrant was issued for his arrest (ECHR, 2013,)
Stage 2 details (arrest/ detention/ extradition): Arrested by Russian police in November 2009 in Moscow under orders of an international search warrant issued by Tajikistan. Remained in detention pending extradition.
The Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia found Juraev guilty of founding an armed cell of the IMU in Russia in 2005, and of transferring up to US$ 5000 per month to IMU leaders in Tajikistan from 2006. The Russian courts ordered his extradition to Tajikistan in June 2010. Juraev contested the extradition order, stating that he would be subject to torture. He also highlighted the unlikelihood of his being involved in terrorist activities since 1992, when he was still a small child. He applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) who ordered for him to receive temporary asylum status in Russia (Amnesty International, 2013). Juraev was released from detention in May 2011 whilst extradition proceedings were suspended pending interim measures ordered by the court (ECHR, 2013).
Stage 3 details (attack/ abduction/ rendition/ torture/ assassination/ death): Abducted at 10pm on 31st October 2011 at 'Universitet metro' in Moscow. Four or five plainly clothed officers bundled him into a car (Juraev claims the interogator was Tajik). Juraev was kept for a night and a day and subjected to torture. He was then taken to Domodedovo airport despite the fact that he had been issued with the asylum status and without having a passport (Радио Азаттык, 2012). He went through the usual border and customs checks, and was handed to a Tajik patrol, who forced him into a nearby aircraft. In Tajikistan, Juraev was beaten, interrogated without a lawyer and eventually sentenced to twenty six years in prison on the 19th April 2012 (Amnesty International, 2013; Радио Азаттык, 2012). The Russian courts denied that he had been handed to Tajikistan via the extradition procedure, since it had been suspended. The Prosecutor General of Tajikistan claimed that Juraev had voluntarily surrendered. Russian authorities refused to open a criminal investigation on four occasions (ECHR, 2013).
Legal status (refugee/ asylum seeker/ resident): Applied for refugee status in Russia, firstly in 2009, but was repeatedly denied. Temporary asylum status in Russia- granted by European Court of Human Rights. Amnesty International, Return to torture: extradition, forcible returns and removals to Central Asia ( Amnesty International, 2013)
Current status: Serving his prison sentence of 26 years in Tajikistan.
Press sources: Amnesty International, 'Return to torture: extradition, forcible returns and removals to Central Asia'. [Online]. Available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/52453b634.html Радио Азаттык, 'Шесть граждан Центральной Азии, похищенные в России', 16th November, 2012. [Online]. Available at: https://rus.azattyq.org/a/extradicia_pokhishenie/24772746.html
Legal sources: European Court of Human Rights, Case of Savriddin Dzhurayev v. Russia. Judgment, April 25, 2013, http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-119416. (Last accessed on the 31st March 2016.