MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova has addressed UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Nils Melzer with the request to protect the rights of Russian national Alexander Vinnik, accused of personal data theft and extortion. Vinnik is currently in custody at a French prison.
According to the Russian human rights commissioner, Vinnik’s health has deteriorated significantly. The Russian national is unable to communicate with his wife and children, he is not provided with newspapers and books and is forbidden from going on walks.
"Dear Mr. Melzer, please consider the possibility of visiting Alexander Vinnik and addressing the French officials with the demand to remove the existing human rights violations of the Russian citizen and to provide him with the opportunity to see his wife and children, to have contacts with the outside world and to go on walks outside," Moskalkova wrote.
She also addressed head of the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Pyotr Tolstoy, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev, and Chairman of the Russian State Duma’s (lower house of parliament) Committee for Foreign Affairs Leonid Slutsky to put the focus on human rights violations with regard to Vinnik at a parliamentary level.
Vinnik case
Vinnik was detained while vacationing in Greece on July 25, 2017 at the United States’ request, where he is accused of laundering four to nine billion US dollars through a no longer existent Internet exchange of cryptocurrencies BTC-e. The Thessaloniki court of appeals and the Greek Supreme Court ruled Vinnik be extradited to the United States and France. Russia is also seeking his extradition and has a corresponding verdict of the Greek Supreme Court. Vinnik denied Washington’s and Paris’ charges and agreed to be extradited to Russia.
On December 20, 2019, Greek Justice Minister Konstantinos Tsiaras delivered a decision to extradite Vinnik to France, the United States and Russia. Vinnik was extradited first to France to consider his case and pronounce the verdict. After that, he is to be taken back to Greece to be later extradited to the United States for a similar procedure, which is to be followed by extradition to Russia. Following this decision, Vinnik went on another hunger strike.
On January 28, a Paris court decided to leave Vinnik under arrest. On February 17, a court in Paris dismissed the appeal of Vinnik’s defense, choosing to keep the Russian national in custody. His mother Vera Vinnik addressed French President Emmanuel Macron with the request to ensure her son’s right to a fair trial. She handed over her letter to the Russian Embassy in Paris.