Siloviki: A member of the conspiracy against the President of Uzbekistan was detained in St. Petersburg

In St. Petersburg, the police officer of the opera detained a 33-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan, who is on the interstate search on suspicion of a conspiracy against the president of his country, Islam Karimov. This was reported by Interfax with reference to a source in law enforcement agencies of the city. The name of the detainee is not specified.

According to Fontanka.ru, in his homeland the suspect was arrested in absentia in February 2015. According to RIA Novosti, the detainee was charged with Article 159 (conspiracy for the seizure of power) and 244 of the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan (organization of riots). Interfax does not mention the last of these articles, but reports suspicion of the leadership of a separatist organization.

The suspect was detained on Saturday evening near the house 34 on the Kolpino highway. He was delivered to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Pushkin district. The Uzbek side was notified of the detention.

78-year-old Karimov has been heading Uzbekistan since 1989. In 1989-1991, when the country was still the Union Republic of the USSR, he served as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, in 1990 he became president. After the proclamation of independence, Karima established a tough authoritarian regime in the country.

In May 2014, the ECHR forbade Russia to extradite four citizens of Uzbekistan to his homeland at the request of the authorities of the Central Asian country. In Uzbekistan, they were charged with participation in the activities of an extremist religious organization. Extradition, indicated in the decision, would violate Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman circulation) of the European Convention in relation to the arrested. The judges agreed with the arguments of the accused who insisted that in Uzbekistan convicts of such accusations that they were charged with torture.