MEPs and prominent human rights defenders are calling on Lithuania not to make the mistake of handing Daniyar Khassenov over to Kazakhstan. Khassenov lives in Lithuania and is facing forced expulsion by a court decision. The deportation of Daniyar Khassenov from Lithuania was initiated by the Lithuanian Migration Department. Khassenov is known as a human rights activist who has documented human rights violations in Kazakhstan and the circumvention of EU sanctions imposed on Russia, which is using Kazakhstan to continue its war in Ukraine.
In February 2022, following the large-scale military invasion of Ukraine, Khassenov left Ukraine, where he worked as a human rights activist. He made his way to Lithuania via Poland and settled there. There, he also applied for political asylum.
From 2019 to 2022, he was a volunteer and staff member for the Centre for Civil Liberties, an organisation working to protect human rights in Ukraine, as well as for other organisations working on this issue. In 2022, the Centre for Civil Liberties was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with Belarusian human rights defender Ales Bialiatsky and the Russian organisation Memorial.
Since 2014, the Centre for Civil Liberties has been documenting war crimes in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Since the full-scale Russian invasion in early 2022, the Centre has continued to document war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine. The Centre for Civil Liberties works with human rights defenders in Kazakhstan who have suffered or are suffering persecution at the hands of the Kazakhstani authorities. Khassenov, in cooperation with the Open Dialogue Foundation, another international human rights organisation, has documented the cases of the circumvention of EU sanctions in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
“Since the beginning of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, our organisation, with the help of Daniyar Khassenov, has documented how international sanctions imposed on Russia are being circumvented with the help of the Kazakhstani authorities. We demand that personal sanctions be imposed on those responsible. We believe that Khassenov is at risk of detention and torture, and possibly even death, for his activities in Kazakhstan,” said Lyudmyla Kozlovska, President of the Open Dialogue Foundation.
“More than a decade ago, the Lithuanian Ministry of Justice made the grossest of mistakes by passing on – to Minsk and Lukashenko’s clique – data on the current Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ales Bialiatski, who was immediately imprisoned by the authoritarian regime. Today, I urge the Lithuanian authorities to avoid repeating the same mistakes and ruining the life of the young human rights activist, Khassenov. I call on you to guarantee him the right to live safely in Lithuania,” said MEP Petras Auštrevičius.
On 21 December, together with other MEPs, and members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Auštrevičius implored Lithuania to refrain from deporting Khassenov. The MPs’ written appeal was forwarded to Lithuanian Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė and Justice Minister Ewelina Dobrowolska.
“Every day, I document cases of political persecution and human rights violations in Kazakhstan. I was shocked to hear that I could be forcibly expelled from Lithuania and that the Lithuanian Migration Department tends to rely on assurances of supposed democratic reforms in Kazakhstan. There have been no democratic reforms in Kazakhstan. On the contrary, in the last few days alone, human rights activists working on behalf of Ukraine have been imprisoned and tortured in Kazakhstan. I believe that if I am forced to leave Lithuania and am expelled to Kazakhstan, the same thing will happen to me. I have been collecting information on key Kazakhstani officials who helped Russia circumvent Western sanctions,” said Khassenov, who has recently been living in Lithuania.
Today Khassenov was summoned to appear before the Lithuanian Migration Department. Khassenov had asked the Lithuanian Migration Department to reconsider his application for asylum in Lithuania. For this right, he had fought in the Lithuanian courts for months.
On 13 December 2023, a panel of judges of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania considered the administrative case in an appeal filed by the Migration Department of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania against a previous decision dated 5 October 2023. The decision of the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court on the right of residence of D. Khassenov in Lithuania was adopted on 18 February 2023.
The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania annulled the decision dated 5 October 2023 issued by the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court in the case of D. Khassenov and his asylum application. It decided to uphold the appeal of the Lithuanian Migration Department under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania, thereby rejecting D. Khassenov’s asylum request in Lithuania.
Source: aina.lt
