ATHENS, March 1. /TASS/. The Greek justice has been observing the laws of the United States and the European Union instead of domestic legislation, a lawyer said, commenting on the case of Russian citizen Alexander Vinnik, who has been held in custody in Greece for over 18 months without any charges filed against him.
"You are living not according to your own laws, but according to the laws of the United States, according to requests of California prosecutors, who wrote in his arrest warrant that Vinnik must be kept in custody without the right for home arrest or release," said Timofey Musatov, a lawyer who heads Vinnik’s defense team.
"What is the Greek government’s point of keeping a person in custody for over 1.5 years, of spending vast amounts of money for accompanying and guarding him," he went on, adding that the Greek budget pays for several cars to transport Vinnik, 15 police officers who are guarding him 24/7 and a separate hospital unit where he is kept. "Do you know the reason for such cruelty? Here it is - the Greek government shows more respect to US and EU laws, not to domestic legislation."
He reiterated that under the Greek constitution, a person cannot be held in custody for more than 18 months without charges being filed against him. However, the Greek Code of Criminal Procedure permits keeping a person in custody for 30 months if there is a pending extradition request for him.
"The norms of the law, which is inferior to the constitutions, are discriminatory," he said. "In fact, this means that the Greek legislation is harsher toward the citizens of Russia or any other state than it is to Greek citizens."
"In fact, the Russian citizen is now kept in custody upon the decision of a Greek prosecutor, who decided for himself that he should be kept in custody for up to 30 months."
"But the prosecutor was supposed to inform the judge about it, he was to turn to the court to get an approval for keeping Vinnik in custody for more than 18 months. Keeping a person in prison without the judge’s decision is a dangerous signal to all of you. It turned out that each of you can be put to prison without a court ruling," Musatov said.
He said the Greek court will consider Vinnik’s request for release on March 20.
Vinnik’s case
Russian national Alexander Vinnik was detained in Greece on July 25, 2017, at the US’ request, where he is accused of laundering $4-9 bln through the now non-existent BTC-e cryptocurrency trading platform. Russia has sought the individual’s extradition, while France sent a similar request in June.
He has been in a Greek prison since then. Greece's Supreme Court ruled in 2017 to extradite Vinnik to the United States but later on revised its decision and first ruled to extradite him to Russia at the request of the Russian prosecutor’s office and then to France on a European arrest warrant issued by Paris.
Since November 26, 2018, Vinnik has been on a hunger strike protesting against "judicial outrage," calling himself a political prisoner and demanding that the Greek authorities give him a possibility to get back to his homeland.
His defense lawyers have demanded Vinnik’s release, as the 18 months during which under the Greek constitution he could be held in custody without charges brought against him, expired on January 26, 2019.