Russia seeks UK extradition of former oil chief charged with tax evasion
- Russia
- 10/07/2008
Russian authorities has asked Britain to extradite former Russneft oil company head Mikhail Gutseriyev, according to a Russian Ministry of the Interior spokesman Monday. Citing systematic government ‘persecution’, Gutseriyev resigned from Russneft in July 2007 amid Interior Ministry accusations of tax evasion and illegal business practice. The following month, Moscow’s Lefortovsky District Court froze all Russneft shares and the Tverskoi Court issued an arrest warrant for Gutseriyev, but he had already fled the country. A Russian Prosecutor General’s Office spokesperson confirmed Monday that Russia filed an official extradition request with the UK Home Office on July 29, but said that no response has been received. The British embassy in Moscow did not comment on the request. Gutseriyev, who has maintained his innocence, would face up to six years in prison if convicted.
The UK currently has a strained relationship with Russia, due partly to Russia’s refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the man suspected of administering poison in London to kill former KGB agent and British citizen Alexander Litvinenko, so that he could stand trial for murder in the UK. In July, a UK intelligence official said that there are “very strong indications” that the Russian government was behind the murder. Russian officials say the Russian constitution prohibits the extradition of citizens for criminal trials in other countries. Britain has previously refused Russian extradition requests for suspects identified as being in the United Kingdom, including Chechen envoy Akhmed Zakayev and business tycoon Boris Berezovsky.
