The Court of Appeal allowed the extradition of a participant in Belarusian protests, despite the ban by the ECHR

The First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction upheld the decision to extradite Andrei Kazimirov, a defendant in the case of mass unrest, to Belarus, despite the ban by the ECHR. This was reported by the Open Media publication with reference to the head of legal programs of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Roman Kiselev.

The court considered a complaint against the decision of the Moscow City Court, which had previously recognized the decision of the Prosecutor General's Office to extradite Kazimirov to Belarus as legal. The decision was upheld, although on July 27 the European Court of Human Rights prohibited the extradition of the activist in connection with Rule No. 39 .

Kazimirov’s lawyer, Illarion Vasiliev, in a conversation with Open Media, noted that the ECHR decision is mandatory for Russian government agencies and the activist cannot be extradited. “Kazimirov cannot be extradited until the final decision of the ECHR. We will file a cassation appeal. We will also petition for Kazimirov’s release,” the lawyer said.

Anti-fascist Andrei Kazimirov was detained on January 14 in Moscow. He was in Russia because a criminal case had been opened against him in his homeland for involvement in mass riots (Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus); he faces up to eight years in prison.

• In Belarus, after the presidential elections on August 9, mass protests began: rally participants believe that the election results were rigged in favor of the current head of state, Alexander Lukashenko. Soon a wave of persecution of protesters by Belarusian security forces began. The actions, accompanied by arrests, beatings and even the death of protesters, caused a resonance in Russia.