The United States has not asked for the extradition of suspected organized crime boss Semyon Mogilevich, whom the FBI put on its 10 most wanted list this fall, a top law enforcement official said Tuesday.
“We have not been contacted officially by U.S. authorities,” Timur Lakhonin, head of Russia’s Interpol office, told reporters.
Mogilevich was released from custody on the condition that he not leave Moscow this summer, after being arrested in a tax evasion case in last year.
He is wanted in the United States on fraud and racketeering charges, and the FBI in October put him on its list of 10 most wanted criminals.
Lakhonin said any extradition request would be futile because Mogilevich is a Russian citizen.
The Russian Constitution does not allow the extradition of Russian nationals to foreign countries.
Lakhonin, who holds the rank of police general, also said Moscow remains frustrated about not being able to secure the extradition of suspects from Britain despite a friendship-building visit by Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
He said Britain’s refusal to extradite Chechen separatist leader Akhmad Zakayev violated international law.
“Britain argues that our demands are based on domestic affairs. … This contradicts the European Extradition Convention,” Lakhonin said.
Miliband made a groundbreaking visit to Moscow in November but failed to find common ground on extradition during talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Ties have been strained by British courts’ refusal to extradite Zakayev and businessman Boris Berezovsky. London, in turn, has demanded that State Duma Deputy Andrei Lugovoi be extradited to face British charges in the poisoning death of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.
Lakhonin made it clear that Moscow would not change its own tough position on refusing to extradite Russian nationals. Asked whether any Russian suspects sought by Dubai police in the murder of Chechen commander Sulim Yamadayev might be extradited, he said, “Under no circumstances.”
Yamadayev, a bitter foe of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, was gunned down in Dubai in March.
Dubai police have accused State Duma Deputy Adam Delimkhanov, a relative of Kadyrov, of masterminding the killing and have issued a warrant through Interpol for his arrest. Delimkhanov has denied wrongdoing.
Lakhonin, who also spoke on the results of Interpol’s work in Russia, said that from January to November Russia put 222 suspects on Interpol’s wanted list, of whom 136 were located and 61 detained. As of Dec. 1, Interpol’s list contains 1,385 persons wanted by Russia, including 329 for murder, he said.
Extraditions, however, have been slow: 38 people were returned to Russia from 16 countries. Russia, in turn, extradited 16 suspects, including five to Lithuania and three to Germany.
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