Russian man whom Yerevan refused to arrest at U.S. request may leave Armenia - lawyer
MOSCOW. Aug 29 (Interfax) - A Russian citizen, Sergei Mironov, whom a Yerevan court refused to remand in custody at the United States request, may leave Armenia unimpeded, his lawyer Karen Nersisyan told Interfax on Monday.
"The court refused to arrest Mironov, he is absolutely free and may leave Armenia," Nersisyan said.
Mironov will remain in Yerevan at least until August 30, the defense lawyer also said.
"Today he is definitely still in Yerevan, and will show up if the prosecutor general asks him to," Nersisyan said, adding that his extradition was still an open issue.
"Officers of the police main criminal investigations department and the territorial transport police station at Zvartnots international airport exposed and detained Russian national Sergei Mironov (born in 1986) at the airport at 16:30 on August 26. The detainee has been on the international wanted list since May 11, 2016 upon the request of U.S. law enforcement agencies," the Armenian police press service said in a release.
Mironov is suspected by U.S. law enforcement authorities of such offences as 'a preliminary agreement to breach arms export control', as well as 'an attempt to violate the law on arms export control', 'a preliminary money laundering agreement', and 'money laundering', the press service said.
Lawyer Karen Nersesyan told Interfax earlier that Russian national Mironov had been detained in Armenia at the U.S. request on suspicion of illegal transfer of defense technologies, and also of money laundering. Mironov works as a regular programmer and has no access to any secret technologies, he said.
