The Cassation Court for Administrative Cases of Kazakhstan left unchanged the decisions of lower instances refusing Mansur Movlayev refugee status, his lawyer Vadim Drozdov told Novaya Gazeta Europe. The court found no errors in the rulings of the first and appellate instances and agreed that the activist had allegedly failed to prove an individual risk of persecution if returned to Russia.
Human rights advocate Margarita Kuchusheva of the Anti-War Committee told The Insider that after the cassation ruling nothing restrains Astana from extraditing him. According to her, Movlayev could be extradited as soon as the handover point is agreed with the Russian side. Even an appeal to the Supreme Court, which the defense is preparing, will not stop the process — and there is no guarantee the Supreme Court will even accept the case for consideration.
Kazakhstan's Prosecutor General's Office approved Movlayev's extradition in early 2026. He has been under extradition arrest in Almaty since May 2025. In July a court extended his detention by five months, until January 13, 2027. Russia is seeking his extradition on extortion charges; the activist himself calls the case fabricated.
On February 23 the UN Human Rights Committee applied urgent interim measures and demanded that Kazakhstan not extradite Movlayev until the international proceedings conclude. UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Russia Mariana Katzarova, in a letter to the defense dated September 4, concluded that if extradited the activist would face a "predictable and individual risk of torture," politically motivated persecution and possible extrajudicial killing. She urged Kazakhstan to reconsider the refusal of protection and not return Movlayev to Russia under any pretext.
Kuchusheva declined to assess how far the UN's urgent measures protect the activist. According to her, it is unclear whether Kazakhstan will comply with its international obligations. "You cannot on the one hand join PACE and the OSCE, and on the other hand extradite political activists to Russia, in Mansur's case to Chechnya to certain death," she said. If Astana extradites Movlayev, human rights advocates intend to seek sanctions against Kazakhstan in all jurisdictions, including personal restrictions on judges and prosecutors.
According to Novaya Gazeta Europe, in Chechnya the man was twice abducted and tortured by security forces. He was able to leave Russia on forged documents. The activist anonymously passed information to the 1ADAT movement about abductions, torture and disappearances of Chechen residents. During his flight, Chechen security forces repeatedly abducted his relatives. In June his elderly parents were held in an unknown location for about two weeks. According to the support group, before that his brother Zelimkhan was subjected to sexualized torture with the words "This is for you for Mansur." His parents and brother were returned home after publicity.
Russian citizen Yulia Yemelyanova, a volunteer with Alexei Navalny's St. Petersburg team, is in a similar situation. Russian authorities accuse her of stealing a mobile phone; the defense considers the charge fabricated. The cassation review of her case is scheduled for September 24. Kuchusheva assesses the risks of extradition of both to Russia as "critically high."
In 2026 Movlayev and Yemelyanova sent open letters to Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asking him to stop their extradition. The "Anti-War Committee Consuls," the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR/IGFM) and the Kovcheg project also demanded that the president halt both extraditions, free the activists and allow them to safely leave for third countries. There has been no response to Movlayev's appeal to Tokayev, as he told DW.
"I have practically no doubt that I will be killed," Movlayev wrote in answers to DW's questions. "The only question is how they will do it and whether they will even explain anything to the public afterward." He also noted that it is better to sit in prison in Kazakhstan but stay alive than to end up a corpse in Chechnya.