A/HRC/10/8/Add.1 page 46 Russian Federation Urgent appeal sent on 17 December 2007 jointly with the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 171. The Special Rapporteurs brought to the attention of the Government information they had received regarding Mr. Mukhammadsolikh Abutov, aged 38, born in Turtkul in Karakalpakstan. On 12 July 1996, Mr. Abutov, a teacher of Islam in his community in Uzbekistan, was reportedly sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of deliberate destruction and damage to property, for burning down the home of the imam of the Turtkul mosque. Whilst in detention he was subject to regular and cruel beatings, by the guards and some of the prisoners working for them. He was put in solitary confinement for long periods of time. In winter he was subject to cold, and he was not given enough to eat. It is alleged that the overall conditions of imprisonment - notably the fact that his access to toilets was restricted; there were three persons per sleeping place in the accommodation barracks; he had to perform hard labour, which included carrying very heavy burdens; there was regular punishment for following religious rituals including through sleep deprivation, mocking of his religious convictions - led to two suicide attempts by Mr. Abutov. In 2000, his term of imprisonment was extended by three years for “contemptuous violation of the prison regime”. In total he spent eight and a half years in prison. 172. In May 2004, Mr. Abutov was released. After his release, he went to Kazakhstan several times to earn some money for his family, including in January 2005, when eight persons in civilian clothes arrived at his house, searched through the whole house and took away all religious literature. The men asked Mr. Abutov’s wife where he was; she said he was in Kazakhstan. They also asked her to get him to come back and talk to them. Afterwards local police visited the house several times, asking Mr. Abutov’s family about his whereabouts and for his Moscow address. Since Mr. Abutov was afraid that he might be sent back to prison, he decided not to return home and, on 15 February 2007, fled to Russia, where he stayed in Krasnogorsk in the Moscow region. 173. On 13 June 2007, he received a call from an unknown Uzbek who wanted to meet him. When he left the house four men in civilian clothes were waiting for him on the street. They later turned out to be officers of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan. They forcibly took him to the Krasnogorsk Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but Mr. Abutov was not included in the list of persons searched internationally. However, soon after he was given an Uzbek arrest warrant, dated 26 February 2007, on the grounds that in 1998 having served his time in the offenders’ colony in Uzbekistan, he had allegedly set up a religious extremist organization with two other prisoners. 174. On 26 June 2007, the City Court of Krasnogorsk ruled that Mr. Abutov should be detained for the purpose of his extradition to Uzbekistan. Mr. Abutov’s lawyer appealed but the appeal court dismissed his complaint. On 27 June 2007, Abutov was transferred to the 50/10 probationary ward in Mozjaisk, where he was placed in a cell where the number of prisoners exceeded by two times the number of beds. Mr. Abutov has chronic liver disease but has only been seen by a doctor once, in July 2007, following several requests. He has subsequently asked for further medical attention but to no avail.