KAZAKHSTAN: Government “did the right thing” in allowing wanted Uzbek pastor to leave
ICC Note:
What good news!  Protestant pastor Makset Djabbarbergenov has been released from prison in Kazakhstan! He and his family flew safely to Europe where they no longer have to fear he will be extradited to Uzbekistan on charges of teaching religion.  His release was sudden and organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He and his friends thank Kazakhstan for “doing the right thing”.
12/5/2102 Kazakhstan (Forum18)-
Three months after he was detained on an extradition request from Uzbekistan, Protestant pastor Makset Djabbarbergenov was suddenly released from prison in Kazakhstan’s commercial capital Almaty on 4 December and put on a flight out of the country in the early hours of today (5 December). He, his wife and four children arrived safely in Frankfurt airport this morning and travelled on to a third country in Europe, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Although border guards at Almaty airport told Djabbarbergenov as he left that he was banned from re-entering Kazakhstan until 2017, his friends in the city told Forum 18 “we need to thank the Kazakh government – they did the right thing”.
Uzbekistan has been seeking to extradite Djabbarbergenov on charges which carry a maximum 15 year prison term.
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Djabbarbergenov’s release from prison and resettlement in Europe was facilitated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), whose officials met him on release from prison and took him directly to the airport. Djabbarbergenov’s friends said the UNHCR officials stayed at the airport to see him safely through passport control to ensure there were no last-minute problems.
Similarly welcoming Djabbarbergenov’s release from prison and departure from Kazakhstan was human rights defender Denis Dzhivaga, who heads the refugee programme at the International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law. “This was a good step,” he told Forum 18 from Almaty on 5 December0.
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