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Spanish court to consider request on detained Russian programmer’s extradition to US

Stanislav Lisov was apprehended at Barcelona Airport at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol, according to his wife

MADRID, January 19. /TASS/. Spain’s national judicial board will decide on a request to extradite detained Russian programmer Stanislav Lisov to the United States, the country’s Civil Guard told TASS on Thursday.

"He was detained at the airport of Barcelona as there is an arrest warrant for him," a spokesman for the law enforcement agency said, adding that the Russian citizen is suspected of fraud. He said the arrest warrant had been issued by the US side.

Lisov was handed over to the Spanish national judicial board on Monday. "Now we need to wait for what the judicial bodies (of Spain) say, whether he should be handed over to those who had sent a request." The spokesman confirmed that a decision will be made on the Russian’s extradition to the US.

Earlier in the day, RT reported, citing the Russian citizen’s wife, that Lisov was apprehended at Barcelona Airport on January 13 at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Interpol. Lisov, a citizen of the southern Russian city of Taganrog, is a programmer who is suspected of hacker attacks.

Russian Foreign Ministry’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, Konstantin Dolgov, said earlier that Moscow was carefully monitoring the situation. The diplomat said the Russian consulate-general in Barcelona was notified on January 14 that Lisov had been detained by Spanish authorities the day before and was "accused by the US of "fraud using of electronic means."

The Russian citizen is now in a pre-trial detention center in Barcelona.

Russia won’t allow violations of its citizens’ rights

Russia will not allow any violation of rights of its citizens who have no relation to illegal actions, wherever they stay, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, commenting on the detention of the Russian programmer in Spain.

"No doubt, the Russian side will not allow impairment of rights and interests of the Russians wherever this happens in the world, if there are no any grounds for this, or the Russians who have no relation to any illegal actions," Peskov told reporters.

"Of course, there is the need to consider each specific case. The Russian side through the Foreign Ministry and our diplomatic mission provides legal support to these our citizens to avoid any groundless suspicions," he said.

Russia’s diplomats sent a request to Spain’s authorities to be informed about the reasons and details of the detention