Public Prosecutor General of Poland Andrzej Seremet advised the country’s Justice Ministry to grant Russia’s request to extradite his Russian ex-colleague, governmental daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta said on Sunday.
Alexander Ignatenko, former First Deputy Prosecutor General of the Moscow region, was detained at the Polish ski resort of Zakopane in January with a fake Latvian passport.
Ignatenko is wanted in Russia over his alleged connection to an illegal gambling ring in the Moscow region which received protection from his colleagues and local police in exchange for a cut in profits.
The ring was busted last year by the Investigative Committee, a rival agency of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, which sparked speculations about a turf war among the law enforcements.
A local court in Poland granted Russia’s extradition request in February, Minister of Justice Jaroslaw Gowin will have the final say in the case. Govin, whose verdict will be “rather political,” according to a spokesman for Polish prosecution said, did not say when he will announce his decision.
