US withdraws request to extradite Vinnik from France

American authorities have withdrawn the request for the extradition of Russian Alexander Vinnik from France. About itsaid his lawyer Frederic Belo, writes RBC.

The fact that the United States withdrew the request for the extradition of Vinnik sent in 2020 became known during the hearings at the Investigative Chamber of the Paris Court. 

«With the help of such a deceptive maneuver, the United Stateswanted to ensure that Vinnik not only remained in prison, but was also returned to Greece, so that from there he would be sent to the United States as quickly as possible», — Belo believes.

During the meeting, the court also postponed the planned further hearings of Vinnik's case from September 7 to August 3. Until then, he will remain in a French prison.

The US Justice Department declined to comment.

Earlier, the French court rejected the cassation appealpetition to appeal the five-year sentence. As a result of this decision, Vinnik could be extradited to Greece and then to the United States, his lawyers said. 

The transfer was supposed to take place on June 30, howeverThe defense filed an urgent appeal to suspend Vinnik's expulsion from France, and also appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. The latter forbade the French authorities to extradite Vinnik to Greece.

Recall that in 2017, Vinnik was detained in Greece on suspicion of laundering $ 4 billion through the BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange. At the same time, US authorities confiscated the BTC-e domain.

Subsequently, the Greek court granted the request forthe extradition of Vinnik at the request of three countries at once - the USA, Russia and France. In December 2019, the Minister of Justice of Greece, Kostas Tsiaras, decided to extradite the Russian in succession, first to France, and then to the United States and the Russian Federation.

In early 2020, Vinnik was extradited from Greece to France. There he was sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros. The defense tried to appeal the decision, but the court upheld the verdict.

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