A US judge is expected to release on Tuesday a report on the psychiatric condition of Russian citizen Yevgeniy Nikulin, who is accused by US authorities of hacking social networks, his lawyer Arkady Bukh told Sputnik
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th February, 2019) A US judge is expected to release on Tuesday a report on the psychiatric condition of Russian citizen Yevgeniy Nikulin, who is accused by US authorities of hacking social networks, his lawyer Arkady Bukh told Sputnik.
"As I understand from the hospital, the report is ready, and we anticipate the judge will distribute a copy of the report," Bukh said on Monday.
From his conversation with psychiatrists who prepared the report, the lawyer understood that psychiatrists may not make a final determination on Nikulin's condition.
"It appears to be that the psychiatrists still have no conclusive vision of a diagnosis of the client," he said.
Bukh anticipates three possible scenarios with the release of the report. In the first scenario, Nikulin will be clearly diagnosed with medical conditions that render him incapable of providing assistance to his defense counsel.
"In this scenario, we will need to be looking at our request to dismiss the case possibly," he said.
It is also possible that physicians will not be able to certify certain psychological conditions, and this could prompt the judge to send Nikulin back to the hospital for further treatment to improve his condition, Bukh said.
The lawyer also did not rule out the possibility that the psychiatrist could certify his client's sanity, though he did not clarify what could happen next in such a scenario.
Nikulin was arrested in October 2016 in the Czech Republic and extradited to the United States, where he is accused of hacking into computers belonging to LinkedIn, Dropbox and the Formspring online services.
Russian authorities, who charged Nikulin with internet fraud in 2009, requested his extradition on the same day as the United States, but the Czech Justice Ministry granted the US request.
