MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti) - Interpol has
officially put Yevgeny Chichvarkin, the former owner of Russian
cell phone retailer Euroset, on a wanted list, Russia's
Interpol Bureau said Thursday.
The Russian Prosecutor General's Office said Wednesday
that it had requested Chichvarkin's inclusion on the
international wanted list.
Charges against Yevgeny Chichvarkin, who is currently in
Britain with his family, were brought as part of an earlier
kidnapping case against former Euroset vice president Boris
Levin and two other company officials.
A court issued an arrest warrant for Chichvarkin in late
January. It was appealed against by the businessman's lawyers
as "illegal and without grounds" as no separate criminal case
against Chichvarkin had been opened. But the Moscow City Court
ruled the warrant legal.
The businessman is suspected of authorizing the 2003
abduction of Euroset's shipping agent, Andrei Vlaskin, who
allegedly stole large quantities of mobile phones from the
company and then sold them on through a retail outlet he had
set up for the purpose.
Chichvarkin currently has no plans to return to Russia and
his lawyer said Britain would most likely refuse to hand him
over.
"Charges against Chichvarkin were brought illegally in
terms of procedure, and I am 100% sure that Russia will be
denied extradition because Britain is scrupulous about personal
immunity and freedom," Vladimir Zherebenkov said.
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