The Paris Court of Appeal issued an unfavorable opinion on Wednesday on the extradition of a Russian wanted by his country for attempted murder, considering that Moscow did not provide the necessary guarantees for a fair trial. Following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia was excluded from the Council of Europe, but it must continue to implement the judgments of the ECHR. However, in its decision, which AFP has seen, the Court of Appeal has “noted the non-compliance with the stipulations of Article 6 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) of the Council of Europe of November 4, 1950”.
The Russian parliament adopted a federal law in June 2022 “under which judgments of the European Court of Human Rights handed down after March 15, 2022 will no longer be enforceable on Russian territory”she recalls. “This legal and factual circumstance calls into question the commitment of the Russian Federation to respect the principles arising, in particular, from the right to a fair trial”, estimates the court. She also cited the 2022-2023 Amnesty International report which “refers to arbitrary arrests, trials based on fabricated evidence and political prosecutions”.
Attempted murder
Et “in the event of a violation of the right to a fair trial” in Russia, “no mechanism of international law is capable of remedying this”, she emphasized. Before deciding: “in these conditions”Russia “does not provide the necessary guarantees to ensure” au suspect “a right to a fair trial in the event of extradition”. The suspect, 43, is being prosecuted in Russia for attempted murder in March 2023 and giving a bribe in a penitentiary establishment. He was arrested in January 2024 at Orly airport in the Paris suburbs, when he arrived from Spain. Russia requested his extradition in February.
“I have been in business for over twenty years and I have never had any problems with the law.”declared the person concerned on the stand on May 29, during the hearing before the extradition chamber. “It is arbitrariness that reigns in my country”, he assured, accompanied by an interpreter. In this procedure, “we never see any proof, any witnesses… We have the impression of a kompromat being played out, an attempt to discredit my client and take over his companies”, had castigated his counsel, Me Robin Binsard. In addition to its unfavorable opinion, the court on Wednesday ordered the lifting of the defendant’s judicial review.
