Prague, Feb 18 (CTK) – The Czech and U.S. presidents, Milos Zeman and Donald Trump, will probably talk about the detained Russian hacker Yevgeni Nikulin, 29, during Zeman’s visit to the White House in April, Lidove noviny (LN) writes Saturday, referring to information from the security and diplomatic community.
Nikulin was detained in Prague last October. Both the United States an Russia seek his extradition on which a Czech court will decide.
However, the proceedings with Nikulin, who owns several car repair services and a shop with luxurious watches, is lengthy.
The Czech judiciary first asked both world powers to complete their requests for extradition.
At the beginning of the year, Nikulin announced that he would like to find new defence lawyers. This is why his planned questioning was postponed, while the state attorney cannot send the extradition request to the Prague Municipal Court for assessment until he is questioned, Stepanka Zenklova, spokeswoman for the Municipal Court, confirmed to LN.
The date of Nikulin’s questioning has not been set yet.
The U.S. authorities asked for Nikulin’s extradition earlier than Russia, their request was delivered on November 16, 2016.
FBI detectives questioned Nikulin this year, public Czech TV reported.
The United States seeks Nikulin’s extradition on suspicion of having attacked the Linkedin social network and the servers of the Dropbox and Formspring companies. He faces up to 30 years in prison in the United States, LN writes.
Russia demands that Nikulin be extradited to his homeland where he is accused of an Internet theft of an equivalent of around 88,000 crowns in 2009, LN adds.
Russian diplomacy has repeatedly protested against Nikulin’s possible extradition to the United States.
Czech courts will assess whether the legal conditions for his extradition are met, but not whether he committed the criminal activities of which he is suspected in Russia and the U.S.
The final say will be up to Justice Minister Robert Pelikan, who can decide regardless of the court verdict.
Under the law, he must in his decision-making consider primarily the order in which the extradition requests were delivered and the circumstances of the crimes committed, including how serious they are, LN writes.
($1=25.372 crowns)
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