"Agency"*: Dagestani FSB defector faces deportation to Russia

Polish authorities are planning to deport Emran Navruzbekov, a former Russian FSB agent from Dagestan, to Russia, since they find his stay in Poland a threat to national security.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in December 2022, Emran Navruzbekov, a former FSB operative agent, who left Russia and asked for political asylum in Europe, publicly made accusations against his colleagues. In an interview with Vladimir Osechkin*, the head of the human rights project "Gulagu.Net", Navruzbekov stated that FSB agents were involved in committing terror acts in Dagestan and other regions of Northern Caucasus. After that, Navruzbekov reported that his relatives in Dagestan were under law enforcers' pressure.

Polish authorities placed Navruzbekov into the centre for foreigners in the city of Przemysl until August 15; and he is expected to be deported, the "Agency"* reports.

Navruzbekov was transferred to Przemysl after being detained in a refugee camp on May 17. He has been in this camp since October 2022, when he applied for asylum in Poland.

His wife has explained that this was already Emran's second application for asylum: the first was filed in 2017 and rejected. Navruzbekov fled Russia for Poland in 2017, since then his family has been living in the European Union, trying to appeal against the asylum denial.

Navruzbekov was arrested on suspicion of violating the refugee camp rules.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.

**An international pan-Islamist and fundamentalist political organization whose stated aim is the re-establishment of the Islamic caliphate. In 2003, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized "Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami" as a terrorist organization and banned its activities.

***On March 21, 2022, the Tverskoi Court of Moscow banned the activities in Russia of the Meta Company, owning the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, in connection with extremist activities.