P. Auštrevičius: Lithuania deports a human rights defender to Kazakhstan, who is threatened with repression

Mr. Auštrevičius announced on his Facebook account that on December 13 On the initiative of the Lithuanian Migration Department, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania decided to deport human rights defender Daniyar Khassenov back to Kazakhstan.

According to the MEP, as informed by human rights organizations in Brussels and Ukraine, D. Khassenov not only worked for many years on human rights issues in Kazakhstan, but recently he was actively involved in exposing the mechanisms for circumventing sanctions once morest Russia. Due to criticism of the regime, D. Khassenov would obviously face political repression in his country.

“However, despite the appeals of various human rights organizations – among them the Nobel laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk – the request to grant him asylum in Lithuania was rejected by the authorities.

It should be noted that although the court of first instance granted D. Khassenov’s request to cancel the decision of the Migration Department and oblige the Department to re-examine the request for asylum, the Migration Department filed an appeal, which was satisfied in favor of the Department”, – writes P. Auštrevičius.

According to him, D. Khassenov will visit the Migration Department on Thursday, where he will be given a decision on his fate.

He pointed out that last week, together with other members of the European Parliament, he sent an appeal to the Lithuanian authorities with a request to refrain from deporting D. Khassenov to Kazakhstan, where he would be threatened with political repression.

Mr. Auštrevičius calls on the responsible Lithuanian institutions – Ministry of Internal Affairs , Foreign Office, Ministry of Justice and Department of Migration to immediately take steps to prevent the unjustified deportation of D. Khassenov from Lithuania.