The applicant, Akhmadzhon Niyazov, is an Uzbek national who was born in 1961 and, living in Russia since 2009, currently resides in Irkutsk. In March 2010, criminal proceedings were brought against him in Uzbekistan on suspicion of membership of “Wahhabism”, a religious organisation banned in Uzbekistan, and on 29 October 2010 he was arrested in Irkutsk with a view to his extradition.On 20 December 2010 the applicant lodged a request for refugee status in Russia with the Irkutsk FMS on the ground of fear of persecution because of his religious beliefs.