ASTANA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th June, 2023) Kazakhstan will examine the grounds outlined in the requests for the extradition of Nikita Kislitsin, an employee of cyber firm F.A.C.C.T, to Russia and the United States, Kazakh Deputy Prosecutor General Ulan Baizhanov told Sputnik on Thursday.
"I am aware that there is a request from the American side. Further ... we have to figure out, first of all, whether the actions incriminated to him in the US are criminally punishable in Kazakhstan. Secondly, they (the initiators of the request) must provide us with relevant materials and evidence that the grounds for his extradition are serious enough. Only after the investigation will measures be taken," Baizhanov said.
He added that the same procedure would be applied to the Russian request.
Russia's extradition request will take precedence over the American one, Baizhanov said.
"The question of priority is present: first of all, it is citizenship. In this case, the priority is on the Russian side. But we will have to make sure that all those acts that are incriminated against him, including by Russia, they are serious enough," the deputy prosecutor general said.
The F.A.C.C.T. cyber firm, previously known in Russia as Group-IB, told Sputnik on Wednesday that its employee Kislitsin was detained in Kazakhstan on June 22 to examine the grounds for extradition at the request of the US. According to the available information, he was detained in connection with his former work. The company noted that it was providing Kislitsin with full support and contacted the Consulate General of Russia in Kazakhstan.
Later in the day, Russian Consul General in Almaty Evgeny Bobrov told Sputnik that the consulate had asked the Kazakh authorities to refrain from a streamlined extradition procedure to the US.
