WARSAW, March 11 (Itar-Tass) – The Polish Ministry of Justice has asked Russia to provide information on compliance with the terms of extradition of former Moscow region first deputy prosecutor Alexander Ignatenko, who was transferred from Warsaw to Moscow on February 7.
“A letter has been sent to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, requesting information on what the Ignatenko situation is like, how the terms of his extradition are being complied with and how the Russian side takes the complaints made by his lawyers,” the press service of the Ministry of Justice told Itar-Tass on Monday, March 11.
The ministry expects to receive a reply by March 22.
Ignatenko’s lawyers filed a complaint with the Polish Ministry of Justice regarding violation of Ignatenko’s rights and freedoms.
In late November 2012, Polish Minister of Justice Jaroslaw Gowin said that the ex-deputy prosecutor detained in the south of the country would soon be handed over to Russia.
“This person will be transferred to the Russian prosecutor’s office soon,” he said and emphasised that “he can be tried only on some of the charges brought against him”. “It is on these conditions only that Ignatenko can be extradited to Russia,” Gowin added.
He said that the decision on the extradition was made only after receipt of guarantees from Russia that all Polish conditions concerning the sphere of liability and punishment that can be applied to the former prosecutor would be met.
According to the existing procedures, the detainee can be tried only on those charges with which the extraditing state has agreed. Polish Deputy Minister of Justice overseeing international contacts Michael Krulikowski said Poland had no doubt only about the charge of corruption.
In Russia the former first deputy prosecutor of Moscow Region has been charged with protecting illegal gambling business in the region. He was put on the wanted list through Interpol on charges of fraud and bribe-taking in the amount of 47 million roubles from alleged organisers of underground casinos. On January 1, 2012, the ex-prosecutor was detained by Poland’s Internal Security Agency when leaving the resort town of Zakopane, where he had arrived several days earlier it to meet his family.
Five court hearings have been held on the Ignatenko case in Poland. The most crucial of them, held at Krakow’s Appeals Court on March 7, 2012, ended with a non-contestable verdict allowing the Polish authorities to extradite the detainee to Russia.
Ignatenko was put on the international wanted list for fraud and taking bribes in the amount of 47 million roubles from purported organisers of gambling business in the Moscow region.
On January 1, 2012, he was detained by the Polish security service when leaving the resort town of Zakopane where he had arrived several days prior to meet with his family. He spent more than a year in Polish prison pending his extradition.