Ukraine extradites Putin assassination plot suspect to Russia

Ukraine has extradited to Russia one of the arrested suspects of an alleged assassination plot against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The Ukrainian special services took [Ilya] Pyanzin (one of the suspects) from the pre-trial detention facility where he had been held since January this year to the Odessa Airport,” Russia TV’s Channel One reported on Saturday.

According to the report, Ukraine’s Court of Appeal in Odessa ordered the extradition of the Kazakh national Pyanzin on August 23, and the suspect is now at the Lefortovo pre-trial detention facility in Moscow.

“Investigators from the Federal Security Service will begin working with him in the nearest future,” the report said.

Pyanzin along with a second arrested suspect, Adam Osmayev, were apprehended in Odessa after a fellow suspect was killed in an apartment blast in the city in January, Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Both suspects confessed immediately afterwards to their involvement in the assassination plot at the orders of Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, RIA Novosti added.

The alleged plot, which was exposed just days ahead of the presidential ballot, has been dismissed by Putin’s critics as Kremlin’s bid to win popularity for the Russian leader.

Ukraine has suspended the extradition of the other suspect, Osmayev, upon an order by the European Court of Human Rights to examine the legitimacy of Russia’s extradition request.

ASH/HSN

Source: PressTv (26/08/2012): http://presstv.com/detail/2012/08/26/258202/ukraine-extradites-suspect-to-russia/