Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January-June 2007 with drug trafficking or with Islamic terrorist cells if he did not confess. This was allegedly followed by a month of day-time beatings, night-time interrogation, and threats to arrest his family. Consequently, he claimed that he was not allowed to see his family the following month while his bruises healed. He eventually did sign a confession on the proviso that the SNB leave his family alone. Nevertheless, he continued to be concerned for the safety of his wife and two children as he remembered seeing a warrant for the arrest of his wife while in the SNB detention centre. His family later fled the country. On 13 June 2006 Erkin Musaev was sentenced to 15 years in prison, officially charged with “transferring military secrets to an unnamed NATO member state. However, he has remained adamant that there were many irregularities in the case. For example, he was accused of passing on information to the US which was used for the Andizhan uprising, implying an unproven allegation that the US was involved in preparing the uprising. Moreover, he claims that not one witness confirmed that he was a spy, and that a witness in fact countered the court’s claims by asserting that the so-called “secret” information (relating to border crossing points) that he was accused of passing on was not actually a state secret. Extradition requests by the Uzbekistani authorities (Update to AI Index: EUR 01/001/2007) The Uzbekistani authorities continued to actively seek the extradition -- in the name of national security and the fight against terrorism -- of members or suspected members of banned Islamic parties or movements, such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir and Akramia, whom they accuse of participation in the Andizhan events. Such extraditions were sought from neighbouring countries as well as the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Most of the men forcibly returned to Uzbekistan have been held in incommunicado detention, thus increasing Amnesty International 155 their risk of being tortured or otherwise illtreated. AI was also concerned about allegations that the Uzbekistani authorities have pressured refugees to return voluntarily to Uzbekistan and that access to those returned has been restricted. Returnees from the USA Uzbekistan confirmed that 41 refugees who had fled the country after the Andizhan events and had been evacuated by the office of the UNHCR first to Romania and then resettled to the United States (US) returned home in August 2006. A group of 12 Andizhan refugees had returned from the US in mid-July2006, reportedly with safety guarantees from Uzbekistani officials, although human rights groups expressed doubts about the circumstances of their return. According to reliable sources the Uzbekistani Embassy in the US arranged for the return journeys of the refugees and even paid half of the air fare. A third group of refugees resettled to the US state of Idaho were reportedly preparing to return in September 2006. Two refugees resettled to Idaho died in August and September 2006 under mysterious circumstances. There were reports that some of the refugees were pressured into "voluntarily" returning to Uzbekistan. A group of the July 2006 returnees were apparently shown on Uzbekistani television saying that they had been forced against their will to leave Kyrgyzstan by international organizations and international actors intent on harming Uzbekistan and that they were very grateful to the Uzbekistani authorities for assisting them in returning to their homeland. Ten women out of the third group of refugees returned at the beginning of March 2007. AI received reports that at least two of the returnees from the US were detained some weeks after their return to Andizhan. However, the organization was unable to confirm these reports. According to the independent news agency Uznews.net a group of 17 refugees who had returned to Andizhan from the US in 2006 fled the country again in May, unable to withstand the pressure exerted upon AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007