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Italy’s justice minister orders probe of judges over Uss escape

The Ministry intends, in particular, to find out on what grounds the Russian was transferred from prison to house arrest at the end of 2022

ROME, April 13. /TASS/. Italian Justice Minister Carlo Nordio has ordered a probe of judges and prosecutors in Milan over the escape of Russian national Artyom Uss from house arrest, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported on Thursday.

According to the report, the ministry wants to examine the reasons why the Russian was moved from a prison to house arrest at the end of 2022. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said at a meeting of a parliamentary security committee on Thursday that the escape wasn’t the fault of the executive branch of the government.

"It wasn’t the fault of the cabinet, but of another government branch," she was quoted as saying by La Repubblica.

A source told TASS earlier that the incident could cause problems between the Italian judiciary and the US, as the Americans hoped for the extradition of the Russian and, given his relation to a Russian governor, planned to use him in an exchange for US nationals that had been detained in Russia.

La Repubblica reported on Wednesday that Italian investigators identified four or five people that could have assisted Uss with escaping from house arrest. He was allegedly helped by a group of fewer than 10 people, the report said. Milan prosecutors believe Uss took a few hours to get out of Italy, changing several cars, according to the newspaper. The investigators believe he entered Slovenia, then Serbia where he could allegedly have hopped on a plane to Russia.

Artyom Uss is a son of Krasnoyarsk Region Governor Alexander Uss. The junior Uss is accused in the US of evading sanctions and money laundering, facing 20 to 30 years in prison, if convicted. He was detained in Italy on October 17, 2022 and placed under house arrest pending a court ruling on his extradition to the US. A Milan court on March 21 ruled in favor of the extradition. The Russian was reported missing on March 23. Uss turned himself in to the Russian Interior Ministry on April 4, as Russia had also sought his extradition from Italy in a separate money laundering case.

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