MOSCOW, July 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia hopes that a Lithuanian court’s decision to extradite a Russian national to the United States will be reviewed, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official said on Wednesday.
Dmitry Ustinov, 46, was detained at Vilnius airport in Lithuania on April 15, after he arrived from the US to allegedly negotiate a sales deal for night vision equipment used by the US military.
On Monday, a Vilnius court ordered him to be extradited to the US, where he faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of charges of money laundering and smuggling export-restricted military equipment.
Ustinov, whose detention was based on an arrest warrant from the US state of Delaware, pleaded not guilty in court. His lawyers said they would appeal the extradition ruling.
Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special representative for human rights, democracy and the rule of law, expressed Russia’s “deep regret” over the Lithuanian court’s ruling.
“Regarding the forthcoming appeal of this verdict, we hope that it [the verdict] will be reviewed and that justice will be restored,” he said.
Dolgov also criticized the United States for requesting the extradition of a Russian national from a third country.
“The ongoing practice of US requesting third states to extradite Russian nationals is a cause of our most serious concern. It blatantly ignores the existing legal procedure, including the 1999 bilateral Russian-US treaty on mutual legal assistance,” he said.
Another Russian, Viktor Bout, was convicted by a US court on arms smuggling charges in November 2011, after previously being extradited from Thailand in the face of Russian protests. He was sentenced to 25 years in jail.
