Cyprus turns down Russian request for extradition of journalist

Cypriot authorities have turned down a Russian request for the extradition of a young journalist sought after to face charges of blackmail and extortion, state television reported on Monday.

It quoted Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou as saying that he has withdrawn a request to a court to examine a petition by Russia for the extradition of Andrey Nekrasov to face charges of blackmail and extortion in his home city of Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurt Republic.

His lawyer Nikoletta Charalambidou claimed that he was actually hounded by the authorities for his activities which included a campaign in defence of the rights of workers at a factory.

They said the CEO of the factory filed a complaint accusing him of blackmail and extortion in 2013, at a time when he was writing about the workers' demands.

He was initially questioned as a witness, but the FSB, the federal security service, allegedly placed him in police custody and tried to extract a confession.

In February 2014, he was fined 30,000 rubles (450 euros) on a criminal defamation charge for linking a local official in the ruling United Russia party to a person of the same name with assets in the United States.

Fearing that this conviction would be used as an aggravating circumstance in the factory case, Nekrasov fled the country a year ago and went to Lithuania.

He traveled as a tourist to Cyprus on July 16 and was arrested when he arrived at Larnaca airport unaware that an international arrest warrant had been issued against him.

A campaign on his behalf was undertaken by human rights organizations and his lawyer objected to his extradition, claiming that Cyprus had an obligation to send him back to Lithuania, his first point of entry, according to the Dublin Rule regulating the extradition of third country nationals by European Union member states.

Interior Minister Socratis Hasikos, who is in charge of immigration, accepted the request and directed his ministry services to send Nekrasov back to Lithuania.

But Hasikos rejected a petition for political asylum by Nekrasov, saying that he had the opportunity to make any request to Lithuania, which had offered him a permit of stay until May 2016.

Cyprus State Television said that he would be put within hours on a plane to Vilnius, after Cypriot authorities notified Lithuania about their decision.