ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – A looming battle over the extradition of Russian hacker Vladimir Zdorovenin, who is accused by the US of financial cyber crimes, has Zurich caught in the middle. Zdorovenin, 54, and his son Kirill, had been sought by the US for four years before the father was arrested in Zurich 27 March 2011. His son remains at large.
Switzerland, in response to an American extradition requested, handed him over to US authorities after examining the case, and he was flown to New York Monday 16 January. Moscow has angrily said that the extradition was illegal, blaming the US secret services. The exact circumstances of the arrest and the extradition request have not been revealed and Swiss authorities have not commented on the case.
The pair’s names have not been on Interpol’s Red List of suspects wanted internationally.
The Zdorovenins were accused of a number of crimes in a sealed indictment in Manhattan in May 2007. This week the court said that they are charged with 9 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, computer fraud, aggravated identity theft, and securities fraud, according to Russian media.
The Voice of Russia cites Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich as saying that “it wasn’t the first time the US had arrested Russians in third countries under a doubtful pretext and by using provocative methods”, with Lukashevich accusing Washington of applying extraterritorial legislation in its dealings with Russian citizens.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, 2 November lost his high court appeal to avoid extradition to Sweden. His lawyers say they will decide in the next 14 days whether or not to appeal to Britain’s supreme court. Assange is wanted by Sweden for questioning over charges of sexual assault filed by two women in relation to an August 2010 visit by Assange to Stockholm.
ABC News in Australia reports that “his mother Christine told the Australian Associated Press news agency on Wednesday that her son was now ‘even closer to a US extradition or rendition. If [the Australian people] don’t stand up for Julian, he will go to the US and he will be tortured,’” she said.
Links to other sites: ABC News, Australia, Guardian, UK, Radio Sweden
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Austria has agreed to extradite Croatia’s former prime minister, Ivo Sanader, who is wanted on charges of money laundering and corruption. Sanader’s attorney, who calls the charges politically motivated, says his client will appeal. Unconfirmed reports from the Bulgarian News Agency indicate that some euros 4 million in assets of his were frozen in Austria and Croatia in late April.
Sanader resigned from politics, stepping down as prime minister, in July 2009, but he then said he would re-enter politics in January 2010. He was arrested in Austria in December 2010, a day after he fled across the border, not long after former colleagues were arrested in November 2010.
Links to other sites: Deutsche Welt, Sofia Echo
Smaller crowds turned out for Julian Assange’s extradition judgement today in south London than have been present for his other recent appearances, the BBC notes 24 February. The judge’s decision to allow Assange to be extradited to Sweden to face investigations into sexual assault charges against the founder of WikiLeaks was a foregone conclusion, Assange said afterwards, and he intends to appeal.
Links to other sites: CS Monitor, CNN, Telegraph
Rock candy takes on a new meaning in Geneva, with $2.3m candy swap diamond heist (photo, Mario Sarto, wikipedia)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 61-year-old Israeli man accused in Geneva of stealing $2.3 million in diamonds from Alldiam, a Geneva diamond dealer, can be extradited to Switzerland to stand trial. A court in Jerusalem made the ruling Monday 21 February, according to Israeli media.
The man was arrested at his home in Ramat Gan in July 2010, after reportedly entering Israel under a false identity. His partner in the supposed crime had earlier been arrested in The Netherlands.
The two are suspected of replacing real diamonds they were being shown with candy ones, then smuggling the real jewels out of Switzerland. The theft, according to the extradition request, occurred in April 2009 at a meeting at Alldiam in Plan-les-Ouates, Geneva.
It is not clear if the diamonds were rough or already cut and polished.
Alldiam was created by Jean-Pierre Hofmann in Geneva in 1979. The company cuts its own diamonds in Surat, India and sells them.
The Israeli man’s wife says he is being detained in Israel under poor conditions and that he is in weak health, arguments his lawyer used to no avail in the extradition hearings, according to Ynet.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – News agency AP has obtained a copy of a letter sent 12 July by the Swiss government to the US embassy in Bern, pointing out that the main reason a request by the US justice officials to extradite director Roman Polanski was turned down was that the US did not provide documents requested by the Swiss. “Swiss officials said in a letter this week to the US Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, that the denial of access to the information was the key factor in their decision to set Polanski free,” reports AP from Los Angeles, where a district attorney’s office has told the agency it was never informed of the Swiss request for sealed transcripts, nor was the office told the US Justice Department had turned down the request.
Filmmaker freed this noon from house arrrest in Gstaad
Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Roman Polanski, who has been under house arrest in Gstaad, canton Bern, since he posted bail in October 2009, following his arrest at Zurich Airport in September 2009, will not be extradited to the United States. Swiss Federal Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf made the announcement at a press conference in Bern Monday afternoon 12 July. The film director was convicted and sentenced in the US in the 1970s on charges of having raped a 13-year-old girl but he fled the country before serving his sentence. He had, however, already spent time in a psychiatric prison pending sentencing.
The decision centred around the question of whether or not Polanski had already served, in the US, the jail term to which he had been sentenced. If he has, an extradition request is not valid. The Justice Department Monday issued a statement noting that
on 3rd March 2010, the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) asked the USA authorities to substantiate the extradition request by supplying the records of a hearing carried out on 26th January 2010 by the public prosecutor, Roger Gunson, who was in charge of the case in the seventies. The records should prove that, in a meeting held on 19th September 1977, the judge in charge at the time had expressly assured the representatives of the parties that the 42 days of detention spent by Roman Polanski in the psychiatric unit of a Californian prison represented the whole term of imprisonment he was condemned to. If this were the case, Roman Polanski would actually have already served his sentence and therefore both the proceedings on which the US extradition request is founded and the request itself would have no foundation.
The US Department of Justice turned down the request 13 May, citing a court secrecy ruling.
Jamaica’s notorious Christopher “Dudus” Coke has been extradited to the US on several charges including trafficking cocaine and firearms. He will appear in a New York court today to face the charges.
Coke agreed to waive his right to refuse extradition, saying he is confident the courts will clear his name. He was arrested after a five-day manhunt in Jamaica, when the car he was in was stopped at a checkpoint. He was being driven by a minister who had reportedly arranged for him to turn himself in to the US Embassy. Relations between the US and Jamaica have been strained over the island’s initial refusal to extradite Coke. Riots broke out in May over efforts to arrest Coke, who has huge support in the slums of Kingston.
Links to other sites: Irish Times/Reuters, Jamaica Gleaner
A state of emergency has been declared in Jamaica, as a major gun battle ensued in the capital of Jamaica, Kingston, with security forces raiding the home of a drug lord, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, who has refused to cooperate with extradition orders. He is wanted by the US on drug and gun-running charges. Forces loyal to Coke attacked a police station Monday and it appears that the fighting is spreading from the Tivoli Gardens, where Coke has supporters.
Links to other sites: BBC, Jamaica Gleaner, Yahoo news video
Paris, France (GenevaLunch) - Manuel Noriega, the former leader of Panama, has arrived in France in the custody of French judicial authorities after leaving a US prison where he served a 17-year sentence for cocaine trafficking and racketeering. He was not allowed to leave prison in the US although his sentence ended in 2007 because France had asked for him to be extradited. The US Supreme Court turned down his final appeal. The French convicted him of money laundering in 1999.
He also faces charges in Panama.
Noriega flew from Miami to Paris on an Air France flight, where US officials turned him over to the French. French prosecutors must now decide if he will have a new trial.
Links to other sites: BBC, Le Monde (Fre), New York Times
Film director’s request to remain outside the US turned down by California court
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Film director Roman Polanski’s request to stay in Switzerland while his 30-year-old court case is concluded was turned down by a California appeals court Thursday, without the court issuing an opinion. He fled the US before he was sentenced in 1978 on a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse. He was arrested at Zurich airport in September 2009 after the US made a new extradition request.
Switzerland must now decide if it will extradite him, but if he is sentenced to less than six months he is unlikely to be extradited, the justice ministry in Bern noted in March.
Links to other sites: Los Angeles Times, swissinfo
Spain has agreed to Argentina’s request to extradite Dutch-Argentinian citizen Julio Alberto Poch, an airline pilot who is accused of having dumped bodies in the sea, from the air, under Argentina’s military regime, 1976-83. Poch was arrested in Valencia in September 2009, while working as a pilot for Dutch company Transavia. The flights, which he denies being part of, were known as the junta’s “death flights” and are alleged to have been linked to the disappearance of many of the 30,000 people who went missing under the regime’s rule.
An extradition treaty between the US and Britain makes the legal case cut and dried: Gary McKinnon of North London in the UK hacked his way into US military and space agency computers in the days after 11 September 2001 and he must be tried in the US. McKinnon, 43, has admitted to the actions, but says he was simply looking for information on UFOs. Beyond the legal issue is a human rights debate over whether or not McKinnon, who has Asperger’s syndrome (the high-functioning end of the autism range) should be extradited and tried for a crime that could put him in prison for the rest of his life. The man’s family has pleaded with the British home secretary, Alan Johnson, to intervene but Thursday the family received a letter from him saying he is powerless. Legal advice differs on his ability to stop the extradition.
UUKLinks to other sites: boing boing, freegary, Guardian, UK, Times, UK and 2005 interview with McKinnon in the Guardian
Tensions are rising sharply between Cambodia and Thailand, with Cambodia refusing Wednesday 11 Novmber a demand for extradition from Thailand for Thai former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thailand is now reviewing its cooperation agreements with Cambodia. Thaksin was to stand trial on corruption charges in Thailand when he fled the country in 2008, saying the trial was politically motivated. Cambodia has said that it does not consider the charges valid because they are politically motivated, but it limited its response to the extradition request to a simple refusal without explanation, according to local media. The BBC’s reporter in Bangkok reports that Thaksin and Cambodia’s Hun Sen are golf partners and close friends.
Links to other sites: Bangkok Post, BBC, Independent, UK,
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Film director Roman Polanski’s request to be freed, while a demand from the United States for his extradition is pending, has been turned down by the Swiss Justice and Police ministry, reports AP, citing spokesperson Guido Falco, who could not be reached for confirmation. An official statement has not yet been issued.
The government reportedly believes there is a risk he will flee. Polanski was jailed following his arrest 26 September at Zurich Airport when he arrived for the Zurich Film Festival. Switzerland and the US have had an extradition treaty covering assistance in criminal matters since 1990. To be extraditable, an offense must be considered a penal crime in both countries.
Germany has been demanding the extradition of Karlheinz Schreiber for 10 years, since the lobbyist’s arrest in Canada, at the request of the German government, in connection with cash payments to high-level German politicians. Schreiber, who is Canadian and German, has used the Canadian legal system to fight the extradition order, but late Sunday he was put on a plane to Germany. He was reportedly involved in several scandals in Thailand and Saudi Arabia as well as Canada in his role as middleman for very large deals, among them an Air Canada Airbus purchase involving former Prime Minister Brian Mulrony who, Schreiber claims, met him in a Zurich hotel to receive cash in 1998. The Oliphant inquiry into the Canadian scandal was recently wrapped up and the report is due by the end of 2009. The Globe and Mail, Canada, and Frankfurter Allgemeine (Ger)
