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Arrest of Seleznev de facto kidnapped is unlawful - Russian embassy in U.S.

Roman Seleznev was detained at the international airport of the Republic of Maldives on July 5, 2014

MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/. Russia’s embassy in the United States still considers the arrest of the Russian national Roman Seleznev who was earlier sentenced by the U.S. District Court in Seattle (Washington) to 27 years in jail for cyber fraud, to be unlawful.

"We continue to believe that the arrest of the Russian citizen Roman Seleznev who de facto was kidnapped on the territory of a 3rd country is unlawful. According to available information Roman Seleznev's lawyer is planning to appeal against sentence," the embassy said on its Facebook account.

Roman Seleznev was detained at the international airport of the Republic of Maldives on July 5, 2014. On the same day, he was extradited to the island of Guam, an unincorporated territory of the United States. Guam’s district court refused to release the Russian and handed down a decision to deport him to Seattle, where charges against him were brought.

U.S. investigators suspected Seleznev of having intended to steal and sell information about American citizens’ credit cards between October 2009 and February 2011. According to the investigators, he was involved in the theft of some 200,000 credit card numbers. In August 2016, Seleznev was found guilty of cybercrime charges.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has repeatedly voiced protests against the policy of the U.S. authorities that encourage their special services to "literally kidnap our citizens abroad." "The tragic cases of Roman Seleznev and Konstantin Yaroshenko are examples of that policy. The U.S. authorities put these Russian citizens to prison and deliberately deprived them of proper medical assistance," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.