MOSCOW, October 22 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian antifascist activist and punk rocker who recently appealed against an international arrest warrant for him is back on Interpol’s wanted list, the organization’s Russian bureau said Monday.
The Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files, an independent body within Interpol that plays a monitoring role and responds to requests, dismissed Pyotr Silayev’s claims that his case was politically motivated, the Russian bureau said in a statement.
Silayev's whereabouts remain unknown. He was not listed in Interpol’s online database of wanted persons as of publication time, though only part of the database is publicly accessible.
Silayev, 28, said in a post on his Facebook page Monday that his lawyers have not received any warning from Interpol about his “red notice” being reactivated.
Interpol General Secretariat's press office did not return an emailed request for comment by publication time Monday.
A representative of Fair Trials International, which provides defense support to Silayev, said the UK-based NGO heard from RIA Novosti on Monday that Silayev’s red notice had been reinstated.
Silayev, also known as “Petya Kosovo,” a political activist, writer and lead vocalist with a hardcore punk band, is wanted over a 2010 attack on the city administration of Khimki in the Moscow Region, when a mob of antifascist activists defaced the building in protest at the authorities’ plans to build a federal highway through a local forest.
Silayev, who faces up to seven years in a Russian prison on hooliganism charges, last year fled Russia and was granted asylum in Finland after months of living on the run in the EU, an experience he recounted in a series of articles for the Russian media.
Despite having refugee status, Silayev was detained in Spain in August 2012 and spent six months fighting a Russian extradition request. He appealed to Interpol to suspend his red notice and review his case after a local court refused in February to extradite him.
