A Russian national arrested in the Czech Republic will be extradited to Ukraine to face charges of illegal weapons trading, an official said Thursday, Kyiv Post informed referring to AP.
Justice Minister Pavel Nemec ordered the extradition of Oleg Orlov this week, his spokesman Petr Dimun said.
An arrest warrant for Orlov was issued in Ukraine in June 2004 and he was arrested in the Czech Republic the following month. In June last year, a Czech court ruled that Orlov can be extradited.
According to earlier reports, Ukraine was seeking the extradition because Orlov allegedly smuggled an unspecified number of missiles to China in May 2000 using fake documentation. In January 2002, Orlov allegedly also smuggled at least one radar system to Eritrea using fake documents which stated the recipient should have been Romania.
In both cases, Orlov allegedly delivered the weapons with a company named Ukrspetseksport - Ukraine's weapons exporting agency.
Dimun said Orlov had applied for asylum in the Czech Republic, but his request was rejected.
He said the justice ministry was in contact with Ukrainian authorities over the extradition that will "likely happen over the next week or two."
Orlov, 57, has been living in Karlovy Vary for the last years. In August, 2004 he was detained in the airport of Prague by the police in accordance with the arrest warrant issued by Kyiv Prosecutor’s Office. Then, the Supreme Court of Czech Republic passed the judgement on Orlov’s extradition to Ukraine.
During 1973-1980, Orlov worked as the journalist of Vremya analytical program in Tashkent and Arabic countries.
According to his attorneys, Orlov’s hardly had spoken during the sittings of the court. He forgot English and even Russian, hardly said his name and the date of birth. It may be the evidence of some kind of nervous disorder. Orlov may be tortured and even killed as many other accuseds of illegal arms traffic, the attorneys told.
