More than 150 Human rights activists, journalists, scientists and other civil society representatives from different countries appealed to the Kazakh authorities with a statement in which they demand to stop the extradition of Yulia Yemelyanova and Mansur Movlaev to Russia and organize a diplomatic corridor for them in safe third country.
“There are strong reasons to believe that the criminal prosecution of both Yulia and Mansur is politically motivated and related to their previous civilian and anti-war activities, including cooperation with opposition initiatives in the Russian Federation. If transferred to Russia, they face a very high risk of politically motivated criminal prosecution, long-term imprisonment and ill-treatment,” the human rights organizations and civil society said in a joint statement, published on the Instagram page Free_Mansour_Movlaev.
The authors of the appeal are particularly concerned that both activists may face additional, more serious charges, including charges related to treason.
“Such tactics – the use of extradition requests based on trumped-up charges – are regularly used by Russian law enforcement agencies against activists and opposition politicians because of their anti-war stance,” the statement said.
It is noted that Mansour’s family has already been kidnapped and tortured, his brother was brutally raped, and he himself twice tried to commit suicide while in custody. Yulia, when she was detained in Russia, was also repeatedly tortured, and she was not even allowed to use the toilet.
Human rights defenders and representatives of civil society recalled that Kazakhstan is a party to the Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and is obliged to comply with the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the transfer of a person to a state where he or she may be at risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The International Society for Human Rights urges that “this principle is of crucial importance in the cases of Movlaev and Emelianova”.
“In this regard, we call on the Kazakh authorities to: immediately stop the extradition of Yulia Yemelyanova and Mansur Movlaev; to comply with their obligations under international law; to organize a diplomatic corridor to a safe third country. We also call on representatives of international institutions to closely monitor the development of this situation and use the available diplomatic and human rights mechanisms to prevent possible violations of international law,” the joint statement says.
It was signed by 155 people, including members of the Anti-War Committee of Russia, Sweden, the project “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial”, human rights organizations “Kovcheg”, “First Department”, “OVD-Info”, “Memorial Italy”, EQUAL PostOst, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the International Society for Human Rights, as well as human rights defenders from the United States, former political prisoners, journalists and Russian-speaking activists, representatives of civil society from Spain, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, Cyprus, Italy, Finland, USA, Norway, Serbia, Georgia, Czech Republic, Portugal, Poland, South Korea, politicians, directors, playwrights, writers, Among the signatories of the statement are Kazakh journalists Raul Uporov and Lukpan Akhmedyarov. The Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law (KIBHR) and the International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) also added their names to the statement.
Mansur Movlaev, who faced persecution in Chechnya for criticizing the current government, was detained in May last year in Almaty at the request of Russia. At the end of January this year, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Kazakhstan decided to satisfy the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia for the extradition of Movlaev to Russia, and before that he was denied refugee status. In mid-September, the Court of Cassation for Administrative Cases upheld the decisions of the courts of previous instances on the refusal to grant refugee status to Mansur Movlaev. After that, Movlaev tried to commit suicide twice, both in the pre-trial detention center and in the hospital where he was hospitalized.
In his suicide note, he asked to “save at least Yulia,” referring to Russian activist Yulia Emelyanova.
Last week, the Court of Cassation in Astana also refused to grant her asylum. The former activist of the St. Petersburg Navalny Headquarters has been under extradition arrest since August 31 last year.
Yulia Yemelyanova was detained on August 31, 2025 at the Almaty airport while making a transit flight through the territory of Kazakhstan and arrested for 12 months. Russian prosecutors accuse her of stealing a mobile phone worth 12,000 rubles ($145) from a taxi driver, according to leaked information cited by the Russian independent news agency Mediazona. The Russian anti-war committee, which provides legal assistance to Yemelyanova in Russia, said that the case against her was “politically motivated.” Human rights activists believe that the case has signs of fabrication: the girl first saw the phone allegedly stolen by her in the office of the police station, to which she was brought from home. It was not withdrawn from her home. The taxi driver also suspiciously waited one month after “being robbed” to press charges.
In February this year, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Kazakhstan granted the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia for the extradition of Yulia Yemelyanova, but later suspended her extradition to consider her application for refugee status. However, she was denied such status, and challenged this decision in court.
For now, while Mansur Movlaev’s legal team has filed a complaint with Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court after the cassation court upheld the refusal to grant him asylum, Yulia Yemelyanova’s extradition is scheduled for February 2027.
