- It also requires that discussions be made public.
- And include in the general exchange lists between the Russian Federation and the USA
Lawyers for Russian cyber criminal Alexander Vinnik are lobbying the idea of adding him to the list of prisoner exchanges between the Russian Federation and the United States. In particular, exchange him on detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Hershkowitz.
This is not the first attempt to take the detainee out of the United States. Previously, he was offered to be exchanged for basketball player Brittney Griner. But the athlete has already been released and returned to her homeland.
Alexander Vinnik was the head of the BTC-e crypto exchange in 2011-2017. This site is now closed. The FBI also froze all the funds of the platform.
The BTC-e exchange was caught doing business with drug dealers, hackers and other criminals. And the director himself was hiding in Europe for some time. In 2017, he was arrested in Greece.
Vinnik’s extradition requests were filed by the United States, France and Russia. In November 2018, a Russian in an Athens prison went on a hunger strike, demanding that he not be extradited to Western states.
As a result, Vinnik was first extradited to France, and then to California. In the states, he faces up to 55 years in prison.
Vinnik pleads not guilty. Lawyers recently wrote a new motion asking for “permission to publicly advocate for his inclusion in the prisoner exchange.” At the moment, the court has issued a ruling that prohibits Vinnik from publicly discussing his case.
Now the new petition will be considered by Themis. But US officials have already discussed with the Russians the idea of swapping Vinnik for grunt spy Paul Willan.