See related stories here, here and here.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has opened an investigation into criminal negligence regarding the Sept. 12 extradition of Russian-born Timur Tumgoyev to his home country, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko’s spokeswoman Larysa Sargan said on Sept. 20.
She said the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Security Service of Ukraine would investigate the actions of officials of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Security Service of Ukraine, the Interior Ministry and the State Migration Service linked to the extradition.
The order to extradite Tumgoyev was signed by Lutsenko’s deputy Eugene Enin. The extradition was carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine, and the State Migration Service rejected Tumgoyev’s asylum application, according to the Kharkiv Human Rights Group.
Sargan cited Lutsenko as saying that if it is confirmed that Tumgoyev fought in the war against Russia, those who concealed this information would be punished.
Lutsenko also said he was against the extradition of any volunteer fighters who have fought against Russian-led troops in the Donbas to Russia.
Sargan said that Lutsenko had met with Muslim Cheberloyevsky, head of the Sheikh Mansur battalion, and Andriy Cherven, a commander at the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, to discuss Tumgoyev’s case.
Cheberloyevsky and the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, which provided legal services to Tumgoyev, say that he fought against Russian-led troops in the Donbas as part of the Sheikh Mansur battalion.
The Prosecutor General’s Office previously denied that Tumgoyev fought in the Donbas and had claimed that the extradition was in line with the law.
Tumgoyev, a native of the Russian republic of Ingushetia, was unlawfully detained in Kharkiv without legal grounds and then quickly transported to Russia, Boris Zakharov from the Kharkiv Human Rights Group told the Kyiv Post.
Tumgoyev was extradited at the request of Russia’s Federal Security Service, which has routinely fabricated political cases to persecute Kremlin critics.
Russia claims that Tumgoyev fought against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, and has charged him with fighting for illegal groups that oppose Russia’s interests, as well as his alleged participation in a terrorist group.
Tumgoyev was arrested by Ukraine’s Border Guard in Kharkiv in 2016 when he arrived from Turkey. A Ukrainian court ruled that he be extradited to Russia, but the United Nations Human Rights Committee ordered that Ukraine suspend Tumgoev’s extradition proceedings.
The suspension order was still in force when Ukraine transported him to Russia.
“The move is especially shocking because Tumgoyev risked his life for Ukraine in the Donbas as part of the Chechen Sheikh Mansur Battalion, and has now knowingly been sent back to the country which is directly responsible for the military conflict,” the Kharkiv Human Rights Group said.
Tumgoyev had also applied for asylum in Ukraine, saying that he was facing persecution in Russia for his religious beliefs.
“Ukraine’s State Migration Service ignored the huge weight of material presented on abductions, killings, torture and illegal imprisonment on political or religious grounds in the Northern Caucusus and turned down his application,” the Kharkiv Human Rights Group said.
“This is not the first time in the last four years that the Security Service of Ukraine and state bodies following its instructions have continued to collaborate with Russia’s Federal Security Service. On this occasion, there are very real grounds for fearing that Tumgoyev will be immediately subjected to torture, not least because of his defense of Ukraine, and it defies belief that Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office would carry out such an extraordinary step.”
Human rights lawyers also argued that Tumgoyev’s extradition was illegal because the decision to extradite him had been disputed and was in the stage of cassation (second appeal).
Lutsenko said on Sept. 17 that Ukraine extradites about 100 people to Russia every year.
However, Tumgoyev was the first volunteer fighter to be extradited since Russia launched its war against Ukraine in early 2014.
Boris Zakharov from the Kharkiv Human Rights group said at a briefing on Sept. 17 that, according to his sources, Ukrainian law enforcers are often bribed by Russia’s Federal Security Service to extradite people.
