Czech news agency CTK
December 6

zbek dissident Mohammad Solih withdrew his application for political asylum in the Czech Republic today because his asylum in Norway had been sufficiently proved, his defence lawyer Miroslava Kohoutova said.

"We demand that steps be taken in accordance with national conventions and that his status of a political refugee be respected... [agency ellipsis] The fact he had been granted political asylum has been sufficiently proved in my opinion," Kohoutova said.

Solih was detained on his arrival at the Prague airport on the basis of a warrant issued for his arrest by Interpol at Tashkent's initiative. Prague City Court has taken him into extradition custody. Shortly afterwards, Kohoutova applied for asylum on his behalf.

Under the international convention on refugees, a person who is asking for political asylum cannot be extradited to a country in which he could be in danger because of his political opinions.

Solih fled President Islam Karimov's regime in Uzbekistan, where he was in early 1999 sentenced in absentia to 15.5 years in prison for his alleged participation in a terrorist attack in Tashkent in which 16 people were killed. In Uzbekistan he could face even death penalty, according to observers.

Human rights organizations and Norway have asked the Czech Republic to release Solih.

On Tuesday [4 December] the Norwegian government sent a diplomatic note to the Czech Republic demanding that Solih be allowed to return back to Norway where he had lived before he arrived in Prague. The Prague State Attorney's Office received official files from the judiciary bodies of Uzbekistan yesterday. After reviewing the documents it will decide whether Solih will be released or whether the case will be submitted to a court.

The state attorney is to make the decision next week.

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