In December 2022, after he was arrested in absentia for two months by a court decision in the Russian Federation, we were approached by a business representative related to contracts for the provision of services within the framework of cellular communications and all areas related to this area.
He was charged with “deliberate bankruptcy of the company, which allegedly happened back in 2017. The corpus delicti is absolutely far-fetched, and all investigative actions in this case were completed in 2018. The persecution of this person was resumed with the appearance of the security forces, who found out that our ward had financial resources. Also, the security forces became aware that this person left the territory of the Russian Federation in connection with the war and is not going to return. The most “favorable” conditions for the security forces cannot be imagined, and in general, this circumstance is symptomatic when criminal cases are initiated against citizens of the Russian Federation who left the Russian Federation in order to take away their property and savings. The case was “sewn together” within two weeks and, despite the efforts of the hired lawyer, the court session was held in the absence of such and without due notice of the date and place of the court session, as required by the legislation of the Russian Federation.
At the time of contacting us, the persecuted businessman was with his family in Turkey. A feature of this case is the fact that the investigator was able to apply to the NCB Interpol of the Russian Federation at the time of the start of the investigation of “new circumstances of the above-mentioned Criminal Case, which allowed him to start search activities immediately and this significantly reduced the waiting time for the Interpol headquarters in Lyon to complete the search activities on the territory of the Russian Federation, as required by the regulations. Thus, at the time of the court's decision on arrest in absentia, there was no more than one month left for the announcement of our ward. These are the new methods of the Russian security forces!
First of all, we organized a Safe transfer to France for the client and his family. Immediately upon arrival in France, we sent the previously formed cases for obtaining political asylum to the competent authorities and accompanied the whole family to SPADA to apply for state protection and receive new identity documents. In parallel with these processes, our French lawyer colleagues urgently sent an appeal to Interpol with a request not to put this person on the wanted list because he is not hiding from justice and, at the moment, is already under French state protection. Taking into account the circumstances mentioned in the appeal, Interpol accepted this appeal, with the proviso that this person is already on the lists of wanted persons, but the search for him has been suspended while the application is being considered. Based on our experience, a complete removal from the lists of wanted persons will occur within a year, depending on the schedule of the meeting of the Interpol commissions in 2023, but the restrictions have already been suspended.
Within a month and a half, our ward was kindly offered a three-room apartment in the Province of Toulouse, where he settled with his family. Given the fact that he was not detained by Interpol representatives, no extradition proceedings were initiated against this person. In the event of such an initiation, he has the State protection of France, and receiving a refusal to extradite him would only benefit him.