The prosecutor's office wants to invalidate the citizenship of Memorial Human Rights Center member Bakhrom Khamroev

On February 4, the prosecutor's office in the city of Lyubertsy, near Moscow, applied to the court to subsequently invalidate the Russian citizenship of Bakhrom Khamroev, a human rights activist and member of the Memorial Human Rights Center. This was reported on the Memorial HRC website.

Khamroev received the right to Russian citizenship after marrying a Russian citizen. A few years later, the couple divorced. Now the prosecutor's office demands that this marriage be recognized as fictitious, and Khamroev himself is accused of providing "false information about the presence of a spouse" when obtaining citizenship.

The prosecutor's office supports its claim with the explanatory ex-wife of Khamroev, who confirms the fictitious marriage. At the same time, the woman herself told her ex-husband that she wrote an explanatory note because of threats from the FSB. According to the woman, in early February, the security forces came to her home. They called her ex-husband a terrorist who “explodes everyone” and “persuades everyone”, and also “incites” people to take part in actions in support of Alexei Navalny. According to Khamroev's ex-wife, the FSB also threatened to prosecute her for marrying a man involved in terrorism.

Memorial Human Rights Center also reports that in early February, in Uzbekistan, where Bakhrom Khamroev is from, several prisoners were pressed to give false testimony against a human rights activist. Upon deportation, these testimonies will make it possible to initiate a criminal case against Khamroev in his native country.

• Bahrom Khamroev has been involved in human rights activities in Russia since 1992. In recent years, he has most often defended the rights of migrants from Asia and Russian Muslims.
• In February 2020, the court dismissed the criminal case against Khamroev under the article on fictitious registration of foreigners (Article 322.2 of the Criminal Code). The case was closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
• In 2016 and 2017, two searches were carried out at Khamroev’s place because of the case of two refugees from Uzbekistan, in which the human rights activist was a witness. During one of the interrogations, FSB officers asked Khamroev why he was helping "extremists."