Greece Refuses US, French Extradition Requests for Russia's Vinnik - Russian Ombudswoman

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A Greek court has refused to extradite Russian national Alexander Vinnik, who has been in detention since 2017 and is wanted by several countries, to the United States and France, with a decision on Russia's relevant request yet to be made, Russian ombudswoman Tatiana Moskalkova stated.

"According to the latest information, a Greek court overturned the decision to extradite Vinnik to the US and France. A decision on the Russian Federation is yet to be made. At the moment, we are helping Alexander via humanitarian channels", Moskalkova said.

According to the ombudswoman, she maintains contacts with her Greek counterpart, Andreas Pottakis, and Vinnik's lawyer to monitor the issues related to the Russian national's detention and condition.

"When Vinnik stopped his hunger strike, it was necessary to take a number of medical measures to bring him out of this state, and our contacts with the Greek ombudsman played a positive role there", Moskalkova added.

A Russian man identified as Alexander Vinnik, center, is escorted by police officers to the courthouse at the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki on Friday, Sept. 29, 2017

© AP Photo / Giannis Papanikos

Vinnik was detained in Greece in July 2017 at the request of US authorities on various charges, including laundering $4 billion through bitcoin cryptocurrency exchange BTC-E, allegedly headed by him. The Russian national has denied the accusations. Russia, where he is wanted for separate fraud charges, and France also seek his extradition.