Prague, March 1 (CTK) – Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikan (ANO) will decide whether to extradite alleged Russian hacker Yevgeniy Nikulin to the United States or Russia primarily according to the gravity of the crimes concerned, he told the Chamber of Deputies on Thursday.
Pelikan will also take into account which country actively requested extradition and which did so only later, he said during the regular questioning of ministers in reaction to a query by MP Miroslava Nemcova (opposition Civic Democrats, ODS).
“I will make a decision as soon as I am able to make it because there are various processes for which I have to wait.
Nikulin, 30, has been under arrest in Prague since October 2016 based on an international arrest warrant issued by the USA. The USA suspects him of a hacking attack on the Linkedin and Formspring social networks and the Dropbox file hosting service in 2012-13. Russia accused him of a rather small online theft from 2009.
The USA asked the Czech Foreign Ministry for Nikulin’s extradition on November 16, 2016. The Czech Justice Ministry later received a Russian request for his extradition also issued on November 16, 2016, and based on an arrest warrant from November 10, 2016.
Nemcova said the USA might suspect Nikulin of being acquainted with a number of operations of the Russian cyber war against the West. She said Russia reacted to this by very quickly remembering that Nikulin committed a petty crime in Russia.
“They want to get him in Russia because I think they are rightly afraid that the Americans would get him and ask him things that would not be good for Russia,” Nemcova said about Nikulin.
Pelikan confirmed to the parliament that President Milos Zeman asked him to extradite Nikulin to Russia. “He asked me repeatedly and vehemently. I listened to it and presented my stance to the president, which I am not going to interpret here,” Pelikan said.
He said he does not consider Zeman’s requests to be a pressure exerted on him.
Czech courts confirmed that Nikulin may be extradited to either of the two countries.
Nikulin argued that he would not have a fair trial in the USA.
