Ortikov, Kayum
Kayum Ortikov and his wife Mohira Ortikova have together fled to the US.
Who, Why and How exiled: Kayum Ortikov was a security guard at the British Embassy in Tashkent. He was accused of spying for the British and was convicted to six years inprisonment after an unfair trial (The Independent, 2013). He was relentlessly tortured by the Uzbek security forces in prison and fled with his wife to the US in 2013 (The Independent, 2013).
Stage 1 details (accusations/ charges/ Interpol notice/ extradition requests): On 29 January 2009, Kayum Ortikov was sentenced to six years in prison, after an unfair trial on criminal charges under article 135 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan ( The Independent, 2013)
Stage 2 details (arrest/ detention/ extradition): For nine months Kayum Ortikov was tortured in Detention Facility No. 1 (Tashturmeh), to obtain confessions that he was a spy for Britain. During his time in prison he was not allowed to see his relatives (Mutabar, 2013). The Uzbek authorities relentlessly tortured him during his imprisonment (Human Rights Watch, 2014; Buzzfeed News, 2014).
Stage 3 details (attack/ abduction/ rendition/ torture/ assassination/ death): In 2009, the court sentenced him to six years in an Uzbek prison on false charges of “trafficking in persons”. During his time in prison, the authorities have been torturing him in order to get him to confess to charges of spying for the United Kingdom and aimed to get blackmail and other forms of testimony they could use against other employees of the British embassy and Great Britain as a whole. They also wanted him to confess that Great Britain had helped engineer and sponsored the Andijan massacre of May 2005 ( The Independent, 2013).
Legal status (refugee/ asylum seeker/ resident): After much international pressure, Ortikov was released in 2011 ( The Independent, 2013). The couple immediately fled the country, hoping to find refugee status in the UK. But despite his previous work for the British Embassy, the British government failed to offer any assistance, so the couple moved to the United States instead (Buzzfeed News, 2014), where they have received refugee status.
Current status: They are living in the US. In In April 2013 UNHCR granted the with refugee status ( The Independent, 2013)
Press sources: Human Rights Commission (2015). The Andijan Massacre Ten Years Later: The Human Rights Situation in Uzbekistan. [online] Humanrightscommission.house.gov. Available at: https://humanrightscommission.house.gov/sites/humanrightscommission.house.gov/files/documents/Uzbekistan%20Briefing%20-%20Bios.pdf [Accessed 25 Apr. 2018]. Human Rights Watch (2014). Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on Concerns and Recommendations on Uzbekistan. [online] Human Rights Watch. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/08/13/submission-un-human-rights-committee-concerns-and-recommendations-uzbekistan [Accessed 25 Apr. 2018]. The Independent (2013)."Mohira Ortikova's letter to Prime Minister David Cameron". 30 June, 2013. [Online]. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/mohira-ortikovas-letter-to-prime-minister-david-cameron-8680026.html [Accessed: 17 June, 2018] Seddon, M. (2014). Flayed Alive In Uzbekistan, Frozen Out By Great Britain. [online] BuzzFeed. Available at: https://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/flayed-alive-in-uzbekistan-frozen-out-by-great-britain?utm_term=.oqbk35N81p#.dp61R5qdwr [Accessed 25 Apr. 2018]. Mutabar (2013). "Мохира Ортикова: Призываю всех жертв пыток к беспощадной борьбе против пыток". 05.11.2014.[Online]. Available at: https://mutabar.org/ru/2013/11/9481 [Accessed 22 May. 2018].