Kyrgyzstan to extradite activist to Kazakhstan despite torture concern

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan: Kyrgyzstan is set to extradite an opposition activist to neighbouring Kazakhstan, his lawyer said Tuesday, as a prominent rights group raised fears that he might be tortured there.
Kazakh blogger Murat Tungishbayev faces charges in Kazakhstan of financing and membership of a criminal group. He could be transferred there "today or tomorrow", his lawyer Nurbek Toktakunov told AFP.
"The verdict was clearly determined from above with the aim of pleasing the Kazakh authorities," Toktakunov said of Monday evening's court ruling.
"There is no evidence of my client having committed any crimes."
Kazakhstan accuses Tungishbayev of links to exiled opposition leader Mukhtar Ablyazov, whose call for protests on Saturday in the oil-rich republic saw dozens of citizens arrested in the two largest cities, the capital Astana and Almaty.
International monitor Human Rights Watch warned on Sunday that Tungishbayev would face "a serious risk of torture" if extradited to Kazakhstan.
The activist has denied he is a member of the Ablyazov-led Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan group, which a Kazakh court outlawed as extremist last year.
Ablyazov, who is believed to be based in France, was last year sentenced in absentia to 20 years in jail for embezzling billions of dollars from BTA bank, once a leading lender in Kazakhstan, in 2009.
He has denied wrongdoing but promised to topple the regime of long-ruling Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev "in the space of three years".
France in 2016 refused to turn Ablyazov over to Russia to face separate charges of corruption linked to BTA.
The order for Tungishbayev's extradition comes as ties between ex-Soviet neighbours Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are recovering from a diplomatic falling-out linked to Kyrgyzstan's presidential elections last year. — AFP