Moscow City Court has upheld the decision of the Russian Federation Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin on extradition of businessman Leonid Kaplan (Leon Lunn) to the authorities of Spain Spanish prosecutor's office calls the businessman "a financial manager of the Russian mafia" and accuses him of organizing financial scheme in this country to launder the proceeds of crime group by known kingpin Zakhary Kalashov (Shakro Young). Lawyers are going to appeal the decision of the Moscow City Court, calling it illegal.

 

Moscow City Court considered the claim of the notorious businessman Leonid Kaplan and his lawyers against a decision of the Russian Federation Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin on the extradition of businessman at the request of Spanish Judge Fernando Andreu, issued in December last year, (Kommersant reported on details of the case on March 27, 2010). In Spain, Mr. Kaplan will be brought to justice on charges of belonging to “an unlawful community" and "money laundering". According to Spanish prosecutors statement outlined in the request for the extradition, businessman created a scheme in this country under which the proceeds of the Russian mafia had been laundered through their investments in a network of front companies and in the real estate on the Costa del Sol; he did so at the direction of the kingpin Zakhary  Kalashov. As already reported by Kommersant, several defendants in the scandalous investigation, including Zachary Kalashev, were sentenced to lengthy prison terms and multimillion-dollar fines in Spain.

Moscow City Court Judge Oleg Gaidar upheld the decision by Viktor Grin on the extradition of Leonid Kaplan. As the protection of a businessman assured, the trial was held in the absence of lawyers of the businessman, and with the assistance of appointed counsel. "It was an unfair trial”, businessman's lawyer Marina Jarosch told Kommersant. According to her, in the morning FSB operatives ignored the protests of doctors (the businessman is being treated with cardiac and cancer diagnosis at the hospital), and forcibly took him to the Moscow City Court where a judge promptly addressed the issue of legality of the decision the Prosecutor General to extradite him.

According to Ms. Jaros, City Court did not notify the lawyers of businessman on the forthcoming consideration of the complaint. A court hearing was held with the assistance of appointed counsel without the consent of Leonid Kaplan.

In addition, according to the lawyer, in the courtroom the businessman had blood pressure raised sharply. He told the judge that for health reasons he could not participate in the meeting, and asked her to call an ambulance. Marina Jarosch says that the judge ignored the request by Leonid Kaplan. Mr. Kaplan's defense is going to appeal against the Moscow City Court to the Supreme Court of Russia. Until it enters into force, businessman will be in the city clinical hospital № 23 due to preventive punishment made in the form of house arrest. According to counsel, doctors appointed her client surgery for cancer in a hospital, which is located outside Moscow, and they cannot transfer the patient there because it would violate the conditions of house arrest.