Stage 2 details (arrest/ detention/ extradition):

In February 2017 Rakhimov was stopped in one of the routine document checks that are a regular feature of migrant-worker life in Moscow. During that check, police discovered that Uzbekistan had issued a warrant for Rakhimov in December 2014. He was jailed pending possible extradition (Radio Svoboda, 2017).

It turned out that the Uzbek prosecutor's office nevertheless put him on the wanted list back in December 2014 for participating in the terrorist organization Islamic Party of Turkestan. According to documents provided by Uzbek law enforcement agencies, Rakhimov "advocated the construction of a unified Islamic state, called for an unconstitutional change in the state system of the Republic of Uzbekistan, listened to lectures and watched documentary films, as well as videos of religious extremist content, involved other people in the organization and repeated holding meetings with them where materials containing ideas of religious extremism were demonstrated a, separatism, fundamentalism, and interethnic hostility. " (Radio Svoboda, 2017)

Despite an appeal against the rejection of Rakhimov's asylum application and a court order to the migration authorities instructing them to follow the law Rakhimov was ordered to be extradited. Yet, the case ended up in the Moscow City Court where, on September 7, the court overturned the extradition order. From a room where Rakhimov was supposed to collect his belongings he was taken away by people in plain clothes. When inquiring after him, his lawyer has been told he left with a friend, which she knew was untrue. She filed a missing persons report, but later was contacted by a man who had shared a cell with Rakhimov. The lawyer encountered him with a broken foot after being beaten. The new arrest was due to an alleged document check and it was discovered he had no passport or migrant card. His documents, in fact, were still at the remand facility where he'd been held since February. However, Rakhimov was kept in detention and a second time his lawyer was not able to find him at the Police station or the court. She was told Rakhimov had been released because he couldn't be held without charge for more than 48 hours. But Rakhimov didn't appear at home. Magomedova, the lawyer, filed a second missing-persons complaint. Again, she received a phone call by a former inmate of Rakhimov's informing her about his whereabouts. Together with Moscow Public Oversight Commission monitoring HR she went to meet Rakhimov, who has been detained again shortly after being released for violating migration laws, appeared with more bruises. The medical report from a clinic however disappeared after being confiscated by the police. On September 11 he was in front of the Moscow City Court's who despite the earlier ruling of establishing Rakhimov as a refugee, he has been sentenced to 5,000 rubles ($87) fine and the deportation to Uzbekistan. (Radio Svoboda, 2017; RFL/RE, 2017)

On 13 September 2017, the ECHR indicated interim measures under Rule 39 to prevent Rakhimov's expulsion to Uzbekistan pending the Court's examination of his case. On the same day, the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office filed an appeal with the Penal Chamber oft he Russian Supreme Court asking to overrule the Moscow City Court's ruling of 7 September 2017 which had cancelled the PGO's decision to extradite Rakhimov to Uzbekistan. On 5 December, the Russian Supreme Court quashed the Moscow City Court's ruling and sent the case back to the Moscow City Court for reconsideration (Legal Acts, 2017) which was scheduled for 15 January 2018. As of this writing, the 11 September 2017 ruling of Babushkinsky District Court ordering Rakhimov's expulsion has become enforceable (UKRF, 2018); this means that he can be deported to Uzbekistan at anytime (‘Russian NGO Shadow Report’, 2018, p 38).