Finland Times

 

Finland on Friday decided to hand over a Russian suspected of computer fraud to the United States of America.

 

Ministry of Justice in a statement said it had decided to extradite Russian national Maxim Senakh, who is wanted in the USA for trial.

 

Finland and the USA are bound by a bilateral treaty on extradition, said the statement.

 

The Ministry said the extradition decision is not subject to confirm that Senakh is suspected in the US of computer fraud and abuse.

 

According to the opinion of the Supreme Court, no impediment to extradition exists, said the statement. 

 

The opinion of the apex court was requested by the Ministry of Justice to deal with the legal preconditions for extradition.

 

“The Supreme Court relied on the opinion of our own extradition law, the extradition agreement between Finland and the United States and in addition it interpreted the matter from the perspec-tive of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Supreme Court came to the conclusion that there are no obstacles to extradition and there was no reason for the Justice Ministry to as-sess the matter differently,” said Ministerial Counsellor Juhani Korhonen.

 

The charges faced by the Russian national were raised in Minnesota. The US suspects he ac-quired up to a million dollar with the help of malware. The suspected crimes targeted the United States, Finland and computer servers located around the world.

 

Senakh was arrested on August 8, 2015 at the request of United States.

 

News Agency Xinhua adds: According to information obtained by Finnish national broadcaster Yle, Russia declared Senakh's detention illegal, but did not request his repatriation.

 

Juhani Korhonen, counselor at the justice ministry, told Yle that Russia did not have judicial grounds for demanding the suspect be sent back to his home country.

 

An extradition requires that a person has either been convicted of a crime in Russia or has been ordered to be arrested on suspicion of a crime, explained Korhonen.

 

The American authorities are expected to escort Senakh from Finland to the United States within a month, said Yle.