Belgium May Extradite a Chechen Refugee to Russia
The Belgian authorities will extradite to Russia a Chechen man who has been granted the status of a political refugee as believed to have been persecuted for political motives.
According to Russian authorities, Vakha Dzhamaldinov seized money from two Russians threatening violence at Moscow’s Paveletsky railway station in December 2001. Although the criminal got away from the scene, police opened a case against him on robbery charges. In August 2007 Dzhamaldinov was put on the international ‘wanted’ list. It transpired in two months’ time that he was in Belgium, so Russia directed a request for his extradition to Brussels. Dzhamaldinov had obtained the refugee status in Belgium, which delayed the extradition process. Following repeated requests by the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office Belgium decided that Dzhamaldinov had been granted the refugee status for no good reason and took away the status form him.
At a NGO report from Azerbaijan -earlier we had published– there was explained that criminal act under “Robbery” is using as one of the method of Russia for extradition requests on Chechen nationals from other countries. So alleged crime for Vakha also probably not true.
Highly possible, Vakha Dzhamaldinov will be face to torture, beating or extrajudical punishment, if his extraditon to Russia came true. However, We remind that the extradition of Vakha Dzhamaldinov will be a violation of the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees!
We ask from our readers to call the discarding of Belgian authorities’ decision immediately, if it isn’t too late!
I strongly protest against the practice of extradition to countries like Russia, where people cannot have a fair trial. You are asking to appeal to Belgian authorities. Could you give the address (e-mail) we could write to?
Editor’s Note:
Mr Yves Leterme, Prime Minister of Belgium: http://premier.fgov.be/fr/contact-1
Belgium Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation: http://www.diplomatie.be/en/contact/
Mr Armand De Decker, President of Belgium Senate: president@senate.be
and also to diplomatic representatives of Belgium accredited in your country.