An appeals panel of the West Kazakhstan Regional Court has overturned a lower court ruling ordering the deportation to Russia of 17-year-old Timur Turkov, who ran away from home because of his antiwar stance, according to a report by the regional outlet Uralskaya Nedelya.
Turkov’s grandmother, who traveled from Russia and is his official guardian, attended the hearing. Answering the judge’s questions, she said her grandson could face danger if he returns to Russia. UN special rapporteur on human rights in Russia Mariana Katzarova had earlier sent a letter to Kazakhstan’s president Kassym Jomart-Tokaev asking that Turkov not be deported to Russia.
In December, a juvenile court in the city of Oral in northwestern Kazakhstan found Turkov guilty of illegally crossing the border, ordered that he be expelled from the country, and banned him from re-entering for five years. However, with the help of human rights defenders, the teenager was able to challenge that decision.
Before fleeing Russia, Timur lived with his grandparents in the village of Letka in Russia’s Komi Republic. After finishing ninth grade, Timur decided to leave Russia due to the “militarization of school,” ultimately hitchhiking over a thousand kilometers to Kazakhstan.
“In order to apply for refugee status because of disagreement with the political course of the Russian Federation and fear of being sent to war upon turning 18,” he explained, on the night of Sept. 12 last year Turkov illegally crossed the border and asked for asylum, approaching Kazakhstan’s border guards. He was placed in a center for children in difficult life situations in Oral.
