The Greek Supreme Administrative Court will consider on Monday an appeal against the decision to authorize the extradition of Russian national Alexander Vinnik to France, Vinnik's lawyer, Timofey Musatov, told Sputnik
ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd December, 2019) The Greek Supreme Administrative Court will consider on Monday an appeal against the decision to authorize the extradition of Russian national Alexander Vinnik to France, Vinnik's lawyer, Timofey Musatov, told Sputnik.
On Friday, Vinnik's lawyers appealed the decision by the Greek justice minister to authorize their client's extradition to France and then to the US and Russia over money laundering charges.
"The appeal hearing is scheduled for today, Monday. At the moment, we have no idea when it starts," Musatov, who arrived in Athens overnight, said.
He added that the Greek justice minister's decision was adopted with violations of the law, because the Supreme Court had not yet finished examining the lawyers' request to suspend the implementation of the extradition procedure, and because his application for political asylum was still under consideration.
On Friday, Vinnik began a hunger strike upon learning that he would be extradited. He previously went on a hunger strike for some 100 days last year in protest of the violations of his rights.
Alexander Vinnik was detained in the summer of 2017 at the request of the US while in Greece for a vacation with his wife and two children. The US authorities accused him of laundering $4 billion worth of funds through the cryptocurrency trading platform, BTC-E. Vinnik faces $88.6 million and $12 million, plus interest and costs, in civil penalties. The charges against him were brought on behalf of the US Department of the Treasury on July 25.
Russia, where he is wanted for a separate fraud charge, and France also seek his extradition. Vinnik has denied committing any criminal or administrative crimes.
In early November, Moscow provided Athens with additional materials related to the case. Following talks with his Greek counterpart, Nikos Dendias, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the only country Vinnik could be extradited to was Russia.
