On Thursday, the Presnensky Moscow court ruled in the case of the former leader of a gang group, 51-year old influential kingpin Vladimir Tyurin (Tyurik). Defense sought to challenge the legality of his arrest on a European warrant issued by Spanish authorities. In this country Tyurik featured in the sensational case of the "Russian mafia". The court dismissed a complaint of the defense of Vladimir Tyurin, which insisted on his immediate release.

The influential crime boss Tyurik, as reported by Kommersant, was detained on November, 2 in Moscow under a European arrest warrant issued by the Spanish court. The very next day Presnensky interdistrict prosecutor Yury Basov sanctioned his arrest. One of the reasons for this was a certificate from the Federal Migration Service stating that a Russian passport of the "authority" had been obtained illegally, he is a citizen of Kazakhstan, where he had lived for several years.

In accordance with the Spanish warrant, Tyurik was allegedly a member of the gang that was laundering criminal money in Spain.

The defense appealed against the decision of the arrest in court. Lawyers insisted that Turin is still a Russian citizen, and according to the Constitution, Russia does not extradite its citizens. Besides, having studied European arrest, the lawyers considered it invalid. They say, this document applies only to EU countries, in addition it was sent to Russia by fax, while one can use the original only. Besides, if we refer to data specified in the warrant, it was registered on the other Vladimir Tyurin. According to the received document from Spain, the person who was to be taken into custody was born in Irkutsk, December 20, 1958. Meanwhile, the detained Tyurin was born on November 25, the same year in the small Bashkir village of Tirlyan.

Lawyers of Tyurin demanded his immediate release. One of the defenders, Mr. Zherebenkov, said that Turin has been detained without a court order for more than a month already, and this, according to the lawyer, is "a violation of Russian and international law."

In its turn, in the court, the prosecutor insisted on rejecting the complaint of the defense. According to the prosecutor, extradition check of the arrested has not yet been completed (they give 40 days for arrest under such a check), and the decision to extradite him to Spain has not been taken yet.

As a result, the court upheld the prosecutor and declined the defense complaint.

Source: Kommersant-Online, 09.12.2010