Elena Tonkacheva: Arinich can easily avoid extradition to Belarus

Elena Tonkacheva, the head of the Legal Transformation Centre “Lawtrend” supposes that "Pinskdrev" holding ex-Director General Loran Arinich, recently arrested in Poland, has good chance to avoid extr

 “The process of extradition is a usual international working tool, firstly aimed to prevent people escaping criminal liability by leaving for another country”, highlights Elena Tonkacheva in the interview to the EuroBelarus Information service.

She reminded that extradition cases are always resolved juridically. “If Belarusian authorities make a request for extradition of a certain person, court of the country where the person is staying, should decide whether the legal basis for that is enough”, explained the head of the Legal Transformation Center.

The procedure of extradition is approximately as following. “Law enforcement agencies should arrest a person, preventing him from free movement. Thereafter, judicial sitting takes place, during which it being decided whether the legal basis is enough for the removal”, explained the expert.

Herewith, the resolution on extradition is not only based on the information presented by the country demanding the extradition. “When such demands concern a particular category of people, like political refugees, then court takes into account the character of violation, as well as the very person. There is quite a number of cases when people are not being extradited to Belarus, as there are concerns that in Belarus, these people will not be judged fairly”, pointed out Elena Tonkacheva.

“For example, Poland often does not extradite Belarusan citizens, when they claim in the court that the judgment could be politically motivated. There were cases when Ukraine also denied extradition”, reminded the lawyer.

The head of the Legal Transformation Centre “Lawtrend” supposes that ex-head of “Pinskdrev” Loran Aranich has a good chance to avoid extradition to Belarus.

“If he claims through his Polish lawyers that a politically motivated prosecution against him takes place, and is able to convince Polish court that the investigation and trial will not be fair, then it is highly possible that Poland will not satisfy the extradition request”, claimed the expert.  

Another curious issue is the case of Janish Bakiyev whom Kyrgyzstan strains to have extradited from Belarus. “I suppose Belarusan law enforcement agencies should follow the established procedure, and not pretend that they have doubts regarding the fact that Bakiyev was photographed on Minsk street. Ignoring internationally established procedure within the CIS and on international stage will not lead to anything good”, considers Elena Tonkacheva.