Extradition to Russia—Interesting Developments

Every so often, when we comment on stories we find interesting, we aren’t fully aware of the convergence of events which tie all these stories together. For example, when we initially wrote about Sean Garland in October of 2005, it wasn’t clear that his case was part of a massive international web of investigations, covering North Korean supernotes, Banco Delta Asia, Las Vegas casinos, “Operation Smoking Dragon,” and a plot to smuggle MANPADS. It seems that this week’s postings on Alexander Litvinenko and Leonid Nevzlin are tied together in interesting ways.

While the conventional wisdom suggests that the Russian government is in some way responsible for Mr. Litvinenko’s death, Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office is now apparently claming that Mr. Nevzlin may somehow be responsible for the radiological poisoning.^[1] According to a “statement released Wednesday evening, the prosecutor’s office said its investigation indicated a link between the poisoning of Mr. Litvinenko and criminal cases under way against Yukos executives,” singling out Mr. Nevzlin.^[2] Furthermore, according to Russian prosecutors, “[t]he investigation has information indicating that the victims found mercury in amounts exceeding permissible levels in cars, flats, country cottages and offices both in Moscow and London. … A version is being checked according to which those who ordered the crimes were the internationally wanted criminals accused of grave and extremely grave crimes,” including Mr. Nevzlin.^[3] How high levels of mercury relates to polonium is rather unclear.

Nevzlin, for his part, has dismissed the allegations as “sheer nonsense,” and said that Mr. Litvinenko “had given him a document related to Yukos,” speculating that “the poisoning death was tied to [Mr.] Litvinenko’s investigations of the Russian government’s dismantling of the company.”^[4] Through his lawyer, he also denies that he was detained upon entry to the United States over the weekend,^[5] but “[a] U.S government official who has been briefed on the case and spoke on condition of anonymity because of privacy regulations” said that Mr. Nevzlin had arrived in Newark on Christmas eve and “had been questioned by Customs and Border Protection officers.”^[6] It is unclear where Mr. Nevzlin currently is located, and if he has returned to Israel, Russia would need to file its extradition request with that country, which it apparently has done—unsuccessfully—in the past.^[7] Apparently, part of Russia’s lack of success in having Mr. Nevzlin extradited from Israel is that, according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there is no extradition treaty between Russia and Israel.^[8] There is, however, a mutual legal assistance treaty between the two countries, but it is limited mainly to information sharing and joint training.^[9]

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[1] See Henry Meyer, Yukos Probed Over Ex-Spy’s Death, AP (via CNN.com), Dec. 28, 2006; Kevin Cullen, Search for Killer of Ex-Spy a Daunting Task; Boston Globe, Dec. 28, 2006; Russian Prosecutors Checking Nevzlin’s “Possible Connection” to Litvinenko’s Death, Interfax, Dec. 27, 2006; Steven Lee Myers, Moscow Links Poisoning Inquiry to Yukos Case, NY Times, Dec. 28, 2006.
[2] Myers, supra note 1.
[3] Interfax, supra note 1.
[4] Meyer, supra note 1.
[5] Interfax, supra note 1.
[6] Myers, supra note 1.
[7] Id.
[8] Israel Bilateral Agreements: Extradition, mfa.gov.il, last visited Dec. 28, 2006.
[9] Agreement Between the Government of the State of Israel and the Government of the Russian Federation, on Cooperation in Combating Crime, May 22, 1997, No. 1203.