Associated Press
December 4
orway has asked the Czech government to release an Uzbek opposition leader who was arrested in Prague last week on an Interpol warrant, the Czech Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
The office received a diplomatic note from the Norwegian government Tuesday, asking that Mukhammat Salikh be released from custody and allowed to return to Norway, where he has been living in exile, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ales Pospisil said.
He said his office sent the note to the Justice Ministry, which is responsible for deciding whether to grant Uzbekistan's request that Salikh be extradited to his home country.
Salikh, the head of Uzbekistan's Erk Democratic Party, was arrested last Wednesday at Prague's international airport. He had been invited by Radio Free Europe, which had planned to interview him for a radio broadcast on the political situation in Uzbekistan, said radio spokeswoman, Sonia Winter.
On Friday, a court ordered Salikh to remain in custody while Czech prosecutors investigate whether there are grounds to extradite him to his home country on terrorism charges.
Salikh was sentenced in Uzbekistan in absentia last year to 15 1/2 years in prison for alleged involvement in a bombing that killed 16 people in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, in 1999.
Norway, which granted him political asylum after authorities there decided he was in danger of persecution in his home country, has refused to extradite him.
Human rights activists have condemned last week's arrest, calling the Uzbek charges politically motivated and warning that Salikh could face execution if he returns to Uzbekistan.
Winter said Salikh, whom she visited in prison Tuesday, "is very calm and serene."
"He did not complain and he is not angry with anyone," she said. "He's a very devout Muslim and is observing Ramadan, fasting and eating once a day in prison after sunset."
She said she was sure Czech authorities were trying to do the right thing in what she described as "an unfortunate situation."
A spokesman for the Justice Ministry, Vladimir Voracek, confirmed that his ministry received the note on Tuesday, but refused to comment on what effect it could have on Salikh's fate.