Illustrative stock photo (source: SME)
Slovakia has extradited Chechen Hamzat S., whom Russia suspects of terrorism, to Sweden where he and his relatives were granted political asylum.
The extradition proceeding started after Slovakia’s Supreme Court decided in early November that he cannot be deported to Russia, the Police Corps Presidium’s spokesperson Martin Wäldl confirmed to the SITA newswire.
Hamzat S. was detained on January 15, 2015 at the border crossing in Vyšné Nemecké (Košice Region) after he showed a passport issued in Sweden during a passport check. He ended up in custody and has been waiting for nearly two years for the courts to decide on his case.
Russia issued an international arrest warrant on him in 2007 as it suspected him of committing a terrorist attack in Grozny in August 2004 where he and another 40 armed people had tried to mar the election of a new Chechen president.
Hamzat however refuted the claims, saying that the accusations had been made up as the Russian authorities were only trying to learn the whereabout of his brother Aslan, who was member of the Chechen rebels and held a high post in the security forces during the rule of the unrecognised Chechen Republic of Aslan Maskhadov, SITA reported.
