Czech news agency CTK
December 11

zech President Vaclav Havel, on a visit to Brno, told journalists that he would like to meet Uzbek dissident Mohammad Solih after he returns from his Brno visit on Wednesday [12 December].

Tuesday morning, Solih was released from extradition custody where he had been kept since his detention on the basis of an Interpol arrest warrant in Prague on 28 November. The court is yet to decide whether a request from Tashkent that Solih be extradited to Uzbekistan as a suspected terrorist was admissible or not. Havel told journalists that he had inquired into the Solih case in the past days for the sake of its complex evaluation. "I have had a huge number of phone conversations and meetings. I've read Solih's declaration to the Czech nation which he wrote in the custody prison," Havel said. He said the Presidential Office had been flooded with interventions [in favour of Solih] from all over the world. "I've come to the conclusion that he is really a human rights fighter, a democrat and an unjustly accused man," Havel said. He said he was satisfied with the relevant Czech bodies having started to handle the Solih case promptly in the past days. "I'm looking forward to receiving him at Prague Castle tomorrow," Havel said.

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