Okhunjonov, Narzullo

Gender: .
State of concern: .

Who, Why and How exiled:

Narzullo Okhunjonov, is an Uzbek journalist who been living in exile in Turkey since 2013 in order to avoid politically motivated persecution for his reporting ( Indexoncensorship.or.,2017). Okhunjonov writes in Uzbek and Russian for media outlets including BBC Uzbek on topics such as Uzbekistan’s authoritarian government and has criticised the politcs of  president Islam Karimov (Indexoncensorship.or.,2017).

Category of exile: . (Definitions here.)
Alleged affiliation: Journalist.

Which stages experienced: Stage 1   Stage 2   not Stage 3. (Definitions here.)
Date of most serious incident: 2017.
Violence experienced: .

Stage 1 details (accusations/ charges/ Interpol notice/ extradition requests):

Uzbek authorities issued an international arrest warrant on fraud charges against Okhunjonov, who denies the charges (Indexoncensorship.or., 2017).

Stage 2 details (arrest/ detention/ extradition):

Okhundzhonov was detained by Ukrainian border guards at Kiev's 'Zhulyany' airport on September 20, 2017  under an international Interpol  warrant  arrest ( Ferghana news, 2017).

A Kyiv court then approved a 40-day detention period for the journalist, the limit under an Interpol notice ( Indexoncensorship.or., 2017).

International arrest warrant: .

Countries of transit, asylum and/or residence: , .

Legal status (refugee/ asylum seeker/ resident):

In September 2017, he arrived to Kiev from Turkey to apply for political asylum for him and his family (Ferghana news, 2017).

He was released from detention in Kiev on the 18th of September 2017 (Ferghana news, 2017).

Current status:

In 2017 Okhunjonov along with his wife and five children were seeking political asylum from the Ukrainian authorities. They are currently living in Ukraine (Indexoncensorship.or., 2017).

 


Press sources:

Indexoncensorship.org. 2017. 'Index urges Ukraine to not extradite journalist to Uzbekistan'. 29, Sept. 2017. [Online]. Available at: https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2017/09/ukraine-extradite-journalist-uzbekistan/

Ferghana news. 2017.'Задержанный в Киеве узбекский журналист Нарзулло Охунджонов освобожден из-под стражи' 19 Oct., 2017.[Online]. Available at: http://www.fergananews.com/news/27066