Corruption, Scandal? Guess Where He Hides Out?
Greek Court Refuses to Extradite Russian Media Magnate
nytimes.com
MOSCOW, Oct. 14 — A Greek court today rejected Russia's request for the extradition of a Russian media magnate, Vladimir A. Gusinsky, only weeks after police arrested and detained him on accusations in his native country of fraud and money laundering.
With the ruling, Russia once again found itself in the embarrassing position of having a court in Europe dismiss its warrant for a high-profile suspect. Greece is the latest in a series of countries to rebuff Russia's demands for extradition on the grounds that Russian prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence of the alleged crimes.
Russian prosecutors had sought Mr. Gusinsky on allegations stemming from an investigation into a $250 million fraud and money-laundering scheme, and he was arrested Aug. 21 at an airport near Athens. But Mr. Gusinsky and others claim the charges are politically motivated and represent a move by Russian President Vladimir V. Putin to quash independent critics.
Mr. Gusinsky's troubles with his government began in 2000, when he was first detained in Spain and confined to house arrest. In April 2001, a Spanish court rejected Russia's first extradition request for Mr. Gusinsky, and threw out the charges submitted by Moscow. He then went into self-imposed exile and moved to Israel, and holds both Russian and Israeli citizenship.
At the latest court hearing in Athens, the judge threw out Russia's request after ruling that under Greek law the accusations against Mr. Gusinsky did not constitute a crime. "I am satisfied with the court's decision," Mr. Gusinsky told The Associated Press following the decision.
Interfax news agency quoted a lawyer for Mr. Gusinsky, Aleksandr Berezin, saying the court's ruling was "intelligent and the only one possible in these circumstances." After the Greek court threw out its extradition request, the Russian prosecutor's office issued a statement late today saying the criminal case against Mr. Gusinsky continues and that his "status has not changed," according to Russia's official news agency RIA-Novosti. Mr. Gusinsky has decided to live either in Israel or in the United States, where his family currently resides, according to Russian news reports.
Mr. Gusinsky, 51, became an outspoken critic of Mr. Putin, and claims he lost control of NTV, the independent television network he founded in Russia, in a takeover engineered by the Putin Kremlin. Mr. Gusinsky has said he believes the Russian accusations were a vendetta in retaliation for NTV's hard-hitting coverage of Mr. Putin and the war in Chechnya.
Legal experts and political observers agreed the latest court decision was a slap in the face to the Russian judicial system. "The whole affair is stupid," said Genrikh M. Reznik, a well-known Russian defense lawyer. Reached in St. Petersburg by phone, Mr. Reznik added that in the case of the charges against Mr. Gusinsky, "there was no crime."
Mr. Gusinsky is not the first to face extradition after criticizing Moscow's leaders and their policies. Akhmed Zakayev, a top aide to the fugitive Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, spent time in prison earlier this year in Denmark while authorities examined a Russian request for his extradition. The Danish justice ministry ultimately decided that evidence provided by Moscow was insufficient to warrant handing him over. Mr. Zakayev had gone to Denmark to attend a conference for exile Chechens held just a few days after a suicide squad of Chechen gunmen took hundreds of people hostage in a central Moscow theatre.
Meanwhile, another Russian media tycoon in exile, Boris A. Berezovsky, and his business partner, Yuli Dubov, were wanted in Russia on fraud charges. They were granted political asylum in Britain earlier this month. |
