Rule 39 is applied in those cases where it is essential to take urgent preventive measures in order to enable the petitioner to exercise his right of appeal, if the Court deems that a violation of his rights has occurred.

The court’s rulings under Rule 39 are binding on member countries of the Council of Europe. The “Social Action” Centre expresses the hope that Ukraine’s organs of executive power will not act against the European Court’s ruling in violation of the country’s international obligations.

In October 2008 Abdumalik Bakaev applied to the Migration Service in Kiev with a request for asylum, which is currently under review. In spite of this, on 4 December he was detained by militia staff in his flat and taken to Goloseyevsk District Internal Affairs Department. The detainment was later justified on the grounds that Uzbekistan had put out an international search warrant for Bakaev. For five days (4-8 December), he was held at Goloseyevsk District Internal Affairs Department, and systematically refused a meeting with his defence lawyer. Only on the fifth day was he delivered to court for selection of a preventive punishment. The procurator’s office insisted on holding Bakaev in custody for 40 days, the term required in order to gather documents for his subsequent extradition. The Goloseyevsk Administrative Court, however, ruled that he be released. In its decision, the court cited the famous resolution of the European court on the case of «Ismoilov et al. vs the Russian Federation», in which extradition of the petitioners to Uzbekistan was ruled to be inadmissible on the grounds that in Uzbekistan they would face the threat of torture, or of cruel, inhumane or demeaning treatment.

The “Social Action” Centre, together with lawyer Viacheslav Yakubenko, will continue to defend Bakaev’s interests.

Since 1999 Abdumalik Bakaev has been subjected to persecutions in Uzbekistan for his religious convictions and has been twice condemned in this connection. After he served out his punishment, the pressure on Abdumalik continued, and as a result, in 2000 he was forced to leave his homeland and to come to Russia. The campaign which the Uzbek authorities are waging against political opposition and independent Muslims has subsequently only intensified. Abdumalik’s apprehensions were justified: in June 2008 the refugee learned that the Uzbek authorities had issued an international search warrant for him on charges of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order of the Republic of Uzbekistan (art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan). Knowing that the Russian Federation’s ‘silovye’ structures now regularly hand over Uzbek refugees to official Tashkent, Abdumalik left for Ukraine.

In Ukraine, he lodged an application with the UNHCR representation there requesting the provision of international protection, and applied to the Ukrainian authorities seeking asylum. In his application Bakaev reported the persecutions from Uzbek ‘silovye’ structures and explained the reasons for them. Since then, and until 4 December, awaiting examination of his application, he has resided in Kiev, at the address which, in accordance with asylum application procedural requirements, he had himself provided to the Ukrainian state authorities.