(WiPC/IFEX) – The following is a 20 December 2001 WiPC alert: UZBEKISTAN/CZECH REPUBLIC: Extradition hearing against writer Muhammed Salih refused: Salih returns to Norway. On 14 December 2001, Uzbek writer and exiled opposition leader Muhammed Salih returned to Norway after the Prague Municipal Court refused to grant a warrant for his extradition to Uzbekistan. International […]
(WiPC/IFEX) – The following is a 20 December 2001 WiPC alert:
UZBEKISTAN/CZECH REPUBLIC: Extradition hearing against writer Muhammed Salih
refused: Salih returns to Norway.
On 14 December 2001, Uzbek writer and exiled opposition leader Muhammed Salih returned to Norway after the Prague Municipal Court refused to grant a warrant for his extradition to Uzbekistan. International PEN welcomes the Czech judiciary’s decision not to return Salih to Uzbekistan where his life was under threat.
Salih was arrested in Prague on 28 November 2001, where he had intended to give an interview to Radio Free Europe. The Uzbek authorities had requested that he be extradited to Uzbekistan where he had received a 15-year sentence in absentia for his alleged role in terrorist attacks in Tashkent in 1999. His conviction is a clear attempt to penalise him for his opposition to the authorities, and there is no evidence to link him to the attacks. His arrest in the Czech Republic led to international condemnation and as a result Salih was granted release on 11 December, pending the court’s decision. Salih has returned to Norway where he has lived under political asylum for several years.
In a telephone call to Kjell Olaf Jensen, President of the Norwegian PEN Centre, Salih expressed his appreciation and thanks to International PEN and all PEN members who had acted on his behalf.
