Boris Berezovsky / Photo: Damian Kudryavtsev Boris Berezovsky / Photo: Damian Kudryavtsev British Court Rejects Russia’s Request to Extradite Berezovsky
06.06.2006
MosNews
A British court rejected a Russian extradition request for billionaire tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who is wanted in his homeland for allegedly plotting a coup. District Judge Timothy Workman, sitting at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court, central London, said extradition proceedings would be “futile” and incur “great expense to the British taxpayer”, the AFP news agency reported.
In comments quoted by the British Press Association, the judge said that as Berezovsky had been granted asylum in 2003 “it would be impossible for the secretary of state to order his extradition to the Russian Federation”.
Russia’s public prosecutor’s office opened legal proceedings against the tycoon in April and the Russian parliament formally requested his extradition in March.
Members of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, have said in a resolution that Berezovsky continued “activities undermining Russian security” during his exile in Britain.
Berezovsky told AFP on January 23 that he wanted to invest his fortune in organising a coup in Russia to “re-establish” the Russian constitution by 2008, deemed buried by President Vladimir Putin. He later repeated his statement on Ekho Moskvy radio.
The one-time media baron fled Russia in 2000 after Putin’s rise to power, saying charges of large-scale fraud and swindling against him were politically motivated.
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