An Uzbek asylum seeker, Rustam Muminov, has been forcibly sent back to Uzbekistan from Russia, Radio Free Europe news service reported on Wednesday.

Yulya Pigarina, an official at the Moscow transit camp for foreigners where Muminov was awaiting deportation, told RFE that Muminov “has already been expelled to Uzbekistan” but said she did not know when he was removed.

Muminov was arrested in Moscow on October 17 on charges of violating residency regulations.

He had moved to the Russian capital after a court in the central region of Lipetsk last month ruled against his extradition to Uzbekistan and ordered his release.

Muminov was first arrested in February 2006 on an Uzbek warrant.

Authorities in Tashkent claim he is a member of a banned extremist religious group and that he is involved in last year’s popular uprising in the eastern city of Andijon.

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