Council of State temporarily blocks Vinnik’s extradition

The Greek Council of State has temporarily blocked the extradition of Bitcoin wizard and Russian national Alexander Vinnik.

France, Russia, and the United States were vying to have  Vinnik handed over to them.

Vinnik wants to be handed over to Russia and the Russian Embassy in Athens made extensive efforts to achieve its goal.

He is the main suspect for laundering of billions of dollars and the US Justice Department has sued him for 100mn dollars.

Vinnik is in the fourth day of a hunger strike which began on 20 December and his health has reportedly worsened.

The Greek justice ministry had decided to extradite Vinnik to France, but Russian moveD to reverse the decision.

According to his attorney Zoe Konstantopoulou, a former Parliament Speaker, “Alexander has justice, international conventions and our Constitution on his side.”

“He is confronted by mechanisms that can crush human existence, which do not care about the Constitution, or about international conventions. They are expected to mobilise in a subterranean manner and above board to reverse the decision of the Council of State. Who will prevail in the end concerns us all if we want to be called human beings,” the lawyer said.