Russia could ask Canada to extradite Nazi criminal Katryuk - Russian Prosecutor General's Office
ST. PETERSBURG. May 27 (Interfax) - The Russian Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) is set to ask Canadian law enforcement authorities to question or extradite Vladimir Katryuk, accused of executing civilians in the Belarusian village of Khatyn during the Second World War.
The PGO is planning to request the extradition of Katryuk, who is a subject of a criminal inquiry launched under Article 357 (genocide) of the Russian Criminal Code, Vladimir Zimin, First Deputy Director of the PGO's Main Directorate for International Legal Cooperation, told reporters on Wednesday.
"During the Soviet era, Canada denied the USSR's request for his extradition and from 2008 dropped criminal charges against him. There has been no new request yet. We will re-send a new request, we have yet to decide in which form, either an international search or a legal aid request. This will be decided by the investigator who opened the criminal case," Zimin said.
However, it is "highly likely" that Canada will reject the request, he said.
The PGO is also considering sending a legal aid request to Canada. For example, Canadian authorities could question Katryuk in the presence of a Russian representative or provide files pertaining to the earlier criminal case against him, or a court ruling discontinuing his prosecution.
"It is possible that they will reject [the request], given the 2008 decision," Zimin said.
"There are now very few cases against former Nazis, given the time that has passed since the end of the Second World War," he added.
For his part, Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Zvyagintsev told reporters that when he mentioned Canada's refusal to extradite Katryuk while speaking at an international legal forum in St. Petersburg earlier on Wednesday, he meant the Soviet era.
"[Canada] refused to extradite him back in the Soviet days, and in 2008 closed the inquiry against him. When I said that 'we were refused,' in this particular instance I did not chronologize when that refusal happened. I was talking about the Soviet Union," Zvyagintsev said.
Earlier on Wednesday, media outlets, citing Zvyagintsev, reported that Canada had refused to extradite Katryuk to Russia.