MOSCOW, September 3 (RAPSI) – Russia's Supreme Court has overturned the ruling of a Moscow court which granted a request to extradite Tajikistani national Nizomkhon Jurayev, charged in Tajikistan with crimes committed by an organised group and unlawful possession of weapons, RAPSI reported on Wednesday from the courtroom.

The court upheld an application filed by its chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev in light of the findings of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over Jurayev's claim. 

In 2007, Tajikistani authorities opened a criminal case against Juraev, a businessman from the Soghd region. He was accused of organising a criminal group whose members allegedly killed in 1999 Tolib Boboyev, former Deputy Prosecutor General. Juryaev was also charged with illegal possession of weapons, money-laundering, tax evasion and embezzling of about $11 million.

In August 2010, Jurayev was detained in Russia at the request of Tajikistani authorities. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office decided to extradite him, and the Moscow City Court upheld the decision by its ruling handed down in April. His detentions was extended a number of times.

Jurayev filed an application with the ECHR in December 2010. He alleged that in the event of his extradition to Tajikistan he risked being subjected to ill-treatment and that judicial review of his detention pending extradition had not been conducted speedily.

In April 2013, the ECHR ruled that there had been violation of Article 3 (prohibition of torture) of the European Convention on Human Rights on account of Russian authorities’ failure "to protect the applicant against the real and imminent risk of torture and ill‑treatment by preventing his forcible transfer" to Tajikistan.

The ECHR also held that there had been a violation of Article 34 (right of individual petition) of the Convention on account of Russia’s failure to comply with the interim measures indicated by the court and Article 5 (right to liberty and security) of the Convention on account of the delays in examining the applicant’s appeals against the detention orders.

The ECHR ordered Russia to pay EUR 30,000 in non-pecuniary damages to Jurayev who was released from Russian detention in March 2012.