ATHENS, July 30. /TASS/. The Greek minister of justice will make the final decision on the extradition of Russian Alexander Vinnik to Russia, the US or France, Vinnik’s lawyer Timofei Musatov told TASS on Monday.
"It is the minister of justice who will make the decision to extradite Alexander Vinnik [on the conflicting requests from Russia, the US and France] in any case, and he will sign the documents to transfer the Russian," Musatov stressed.
"The question is what his [the minister’s] choice will be like - which is more political rather than judicial. That is why, considering that relations between Greece and Russia sharply deteriorated, two Russian diplomats were expelled, and competing accusations continue, whereas the decision will be taken in the purely political framework, we would like the decision to be taken with regard to good neighborly relations between Russia and Greece, not the way they are now."
Speaking about the repeated request from the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office to extradite Vinnik to Russia that was satisfied by the Thessaloniki court, Musatov said that investigators in Russia launched a criminal case against Vinnik under Article 159.6 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Fraud in the sphere of computer information") for a sum of 750 million rubles ($11.9 million).
"The second request from Russia covers all the crimes Vinnik is charged with in the US, which means that Russia charges him with the same crimes and will investigate these crimes on its territory, as it should be," the lawyer said. "Not the way the US could investigate crimes committed on Russian territory and on the territory of other countries, violating all principles of international law and jurisdiction. In this case, if we assume that Alexander Vinnik committed any crimes, then it is the Russian side that has to investigate them, not the American one, and there is parity in this case now."
However, Musatov said, the third request for Vinnik’s extradition that emerged from France changes the situation a bit. "When the US realized that it won’t receive Vinnik, a French fast-tracked extradition warrant appeared, which is more effective than court requests, strangely enough," the lawyer said. "Its effect is the following: Vinnik’s chances to be transferred to France for investigation are higher than to the US or Russia, as he is not charged with any criminal offenses in France, nor held accountable in any way, [because] there is not even a criminal case against Vinnik in France." Still, it will be the Greek minister of justice who will make the ultimate decision, Musatov stressed.
Requests for extradition
Vinnik was arrested in Greece on July 25, 2017, at the request of the US, which charges him with the laundering of four to nine billions of dollars through BTC-e, the now nonexistent cryptocurrency trading platform. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office sent two requests for Vinnik’s extradition, as a criminal case had been launched against him in Russia on charges of large-scale fraud. France recently sent another request, saying that "from January 1, 2016 to June 14, 2018" and in other periods Vinnik extorted and laundered money on French territory as a member of a criminal gang. That said, the Russian national has never been to France and has stayed in Thessaloniki’s main isolation cell since the summer of 2017.
In October 2017, the Thessaloniki court ruled to extradite Vinnik to the US, but his lawyers appealed against the decision. Then the court ordered to extradite the convict to Russia. On July 13, 2018, the Thessaloniki court studied France’s request for Vinnik’s extradition at a session on fast-tracking the procedure and satisfied it, but the lawyers appealed against this ruling as well in the Supreme Civil and Criminal Court of Greece. It will study the appeal against the Russian’s extradition to France on September 4.
On July 30, the Thessaloniki court studied the repeated request from the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office to extradite Vinnik to Russia and satisfied it.