Moscow, July 18 (RIA Novosti) - Vyacheslav Ivankov, nicknamed Yaponchik, who was extradited from the United States at the Russian Prosecutor's request last year, has now been cleared of murder charges. On Monday, a twelve-member jury acquitted him of the murder of two Turkish nationals, citing lack of evidence.
The verdict was handed down behind closed doors, with neither reporters nor anyone from the defendant's family allowed into the courtroom. Defense lawyer Yuri Rakitin told the media after the session that his client had been exonerated despite the prosecution's persistent attempts to sway the jury and that he was now on his way out of custody.
Prosecution officials said they would appeal the verdict but did not explain why they considered Ivankov's acquittal to be a miscarriage of justice.
The prosecution alleges that Ivankov and his late accomplice, known as Sliva, were involved in the killing of two Turks in a Moscow restaurant in 1992.
Ivankov was handed over to Russia by U.S. authorities in 2004, after serving out a ten-year term in a high-security penitentiary in Allenwood, PA. A U.S. court had convicted him of staging a sham marriage to obtain legal status in the country and extorting $3.5 million from two fellow Russian immigrants.
