The five men are wanted in connection with violence in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan, when, according to official statistics, 187 people were killed after "terrorists" attempted to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic state. Human rights groups called the events in the Central Asian country a massacre of innocent people and the United Nations criticized Kyrgyzstan's decision to hand the refugees over.
A source in Uzbekistan's prosecutor's office said, "A team of investigators from the prosecutor's office in the Andijan Region is conducting a probe into their [the refugees] involvement in a criminal case on charges of terrorism, murder, organized crime and several other charges."
He said one of the refugees, Rasulzhon Pirmatov, purportedly participated in an attack on a police unit during the May 13 events and later distributed weapons among inmates who broke out of a prison in the center of the city.
The source also claimed that two other refugees, Dzhahangir Maksudov and Odilzhon Rakhimov, had taken part in an assault on the city prison and administration, and were involved in kidnapping and killing Andijan's prosecutor Gani Abdurakhimov,
Hundreds of refugees fled Andijan after the army and police put down the violence, which was sparked when thousands of people gathered to protest the detention of 23 local businessmen. The authorities said the fatalities included 20 police officers and 11 soldiers.
Human rights groups accused the police and army of opening fire indiscriminately on the demonstrators and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres blasted Kyrgyzstan's authorities last week for violating the 1951 Refugee Convention by extraditing the five refugees to Uzbekistan.
