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Moscow court rules to extradite Belarusian anti-fascist despite ECHR ban

The First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction upheld the decision to expel 22-year-old anti-fascist from Brest Andrei Kazimirov to Belarus, despite the ban of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Kazimirov’s lawyer, Illarion Vasiliev, said he would challenge this decision.

At the end of August 2020, security officials from the Brest branch of the Investigative Committee visited Kazimirov and invited him for interrogation.  Andrei is alleged  to participate in protests  triggered by the fraudulent presidential elections in the country last summer.  Following the interview he was released, but under the condition not to leave the country. If convicted, he is facing up to 8 years in prison.

Fearing persecution, Kazimirov moved to Russia. He was detained in January 2021 in Moscow at the request of the Belarusian authorities and sent to a pre-trial detention centre to await the outcome of his extradition case.

In April 2021, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia granted Belarus’s request for the extradition of the anti-fascist.

In May, the Moscow City Court decided to extradite Kazimirov, but later the ECHR banned the extradition  under Rule 39 on emergency measures.

On July 22,  that Russia extradited MMA fighter Aleksey Kudin to Belarus, despite a similar ban by the ECHR. Now Kudin is in the Minsk SIZO No. 1 detention facility, where he was taken without notifying his defense. The Moscow Helsinki Group  to the Council of Europe in connection with the practice of “hidden deportations” of persecuted Belarusian citizens from Russia.


Image via Avtonom.

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