The Tallinn-based Harju regional court on Tuesday discussed the extradition request of Alexander Dmitriyev, declared a fugitive in Russia for allegedly defrauding a bank of over 400 million rubles (EUR over 10 mln), but adjourned the decision pending the arrival of additional documents.
The request that the decision be postponed in order to ask Russian law enforcement authorities to provide additional materials had been made by Dmitriyev's attorney. The Public Prosecutor's Office agreed, and the court will handle the matter again after receiving the documents.
The court will then adopt a formal stance as to whether or not the extradition of Dmitriyev to Russia is legally possible. The final decision as regards the extradition has to be made by the minister of justice.
Estonia's central criminal police apprehended the former head of the Omsk branch of the Russian AK BARS Bank earlier this month. A court here earlier remanded Dmitriyev in custody until the decision on his extradition to Russia or otherwise is made.
The Russian authorities have declared Dmitriyev internationally wanted and charged him with large-scale fraud.
The ex-banker and former member of the city council of Omsk in Siberia is alleged to have persuaded more than 100 people between 2007 and 2009 to sign mortgage contracts with the bank worth more than 350 million rubles or around 8.6 million euros then pocketing the money. He allegedly paid the phony borrowers 1,000 to 10,000 rubles (EUR 25-250) for it.
Dmitriyev also allegedly contracted around 80 million roubles' (EUR 2 mln) worth of loans with the help of his associates in the Omsk council who nominally ran the businesses controlled by him. The borrowed funds were transferred to the businesses and used for personal purposes "including the acquisition of valuable property - cars, speedboats and aircraft," prosecutors in Russia said last week.
According to earlier information Dmitriyev gave statements as witness in the case beginning from mid-2010. He stopped seeing investigators in December 2010, went into hiding later on and was declared a fugitive.