Kyrgyzstan on Saturday said it had extradited a journalist to Central Asian neighbour Uzbekistan to face unspecified criminal charges, despite protests from the United States and rights watchdogs citing torture fears. Bobomurod Abdullayev's release from jail in Uzbekistan in 2018 was seen as a sign of hope for the free press in the tightly-controlled former Soviet republic, even though he was convicted of writing seditious articles and said he suffered torture after his detention in 2017. Kyrgyzstan's national security committee said in a statement that it had "handed over (Abdullayev) to the Uzbek side" after a Kyrgyz court ordered him to be held in custody pending extradition procedures on August 10. The statement said that Uzbekistan had assured Kyrgyzstan Abdullayev would not be ill-treated. While Uzbekistan confirmed last week that it was seeking Abdullayev's extradition it has not specified the nature of the new charges that the 47-year-old independent journalist and former sports commentator faces. Rights groups claim the case against him may be connected with a claim earlier this year that Abdullayev authored a series of articles critical of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev using a pseudonym. The United States' ambassador to Uzbekistan Daniel Rosenblum said this month that he was "deeply concerned" by Abdullayev's detention and called on the two governments to "respect Mr. Abdullayev's freedom of movement and allow him to depart the Kyrgyz Republic to his destination of choice." Seven foreign-based human rights groups demanded in a statement that Kyrgyzstan refuse the extradition and said Abdullayev would be "at real risk of torture and other ill-treatment" if returned to his home country. tol-cr/jbr/tgb