CAT/C/54/D/542/2013 The facts as presented by the complainant 2.1 The complainant is a citizen of Uzbekistan from Kokand, in Fergana Province. In 2001, his wife, who suffered from psychological illness, committed suicide. The complainant was charged with incitement to suicide under article 103 of the Uzbek Criminal Code, but he contends that the investigation was terminated owing to the absence of corpus delicti in his acts. 2.2 At the end of 2007, the complainant decided to move to the Russian Federation for economic reasons. For this purpose, on 7 December 2007, he obtained a certificate of nonprosecution (no criminal record) at the Kokand Department of the Interior. He later presented this document to the Regional Department of the Federal Migration Service in Nizhny Novgorod, when applying for a temporary residence permit in the Russian Federation. On 4 January 2008, at the same Department of the Interior, he obtained a new passport with a stamp allowing him to travel outside Uzbekistan and the Commonwealth of Independent States. On 18 July 2008, the complainant obtained a three-year residence permit in Nizhny Novgorod, which was subsequently renewed. He travelled between the Russian Federation and Uzbekistan on numerous occasions, crossing border checkpoints. He stayed in Uzbekistan for six months in 2009 and for one and a half years in 2010–2011. 2.3 In July 2011, the complainant travelled from Nizhny Novgorod to Kazakhstan, where his brother was detained and risked extradition to Uzbekistan on charges of terrorism, religious extremism and connection to the Andijan events of 2005. In August 2011, he submitted to the Committee a complaint on behalf of his brother with a request for interim measures. In July 2012, the complainant’s brother was released from detention in Kazakhstan, escorted to the Russian border and returned to Nizhny Novgorod, where he had previously lived.1 On 24 August 2012, the complainant was detained in Nizhny Novgorod at the request of the Kokand Department of the Interior (Uzbekistan). This request stated that, on 25 April 2002, the complainant was convicted by the Fergana City Court to seven years in prison for incitement to suicide and, on 26 April 2012, he was put on a wanted list by the Kokand Department of the Interior (the same authority that had issued to the complainant a non-prosecution certificate in 2007 and a new passport in 2008). 2.4 On 27 August 2012, the complainant filed an asylum application with the Regional Department of the Federal Migration Service in Nizhny Novgorod. He claimed that his prosecution in Uzbekistan was motivated by his complaint on behalf of his brother to the Committee and by his ties to his brother, not by the criminal case, which was closed in 2002. He argued that no action was undertaken by the Uzbek authorities to find him between 2002 and 2012. On 7 December 2012, the Regional Department rejected the complainant’s application on the basis that he was wanted in Uzbekistan for absconding from serving a sentence for a criminal offence and not on the basis of politically motivated charges. The Federal Migration Service also stated that the complainant did not produce evidence for his claim of not having committed the crime for which he was convicted, and that his real motive for requesting asylum was to avoid criminal liability in Uzbekistan. On 26 November 2012, the complainant appealed to the Sormovsky District Court. In addition to the arguments invoked before the Federal Migration Service, he alleged that the Fergana Court decision of 25 April 2002 was backdated, unlawful and groundless; that it was extremely brief, did not provide the proofs of his guilt and did not name the witnesses 1 At the time of the submission, extradition proceedings against the complainant’s brother were ongoing in the Russian Federation at the request of Uzbekistan. 3