The firm successfully defended extradition proceedings instigated by the Russian Federation in respect of an individual accused of involvement in the attempted murder of a businessman and murder of his body guard in St Petersburg. The firm obtained strong evidence that the client was being pursued for political reasons and methods amounting to torture had been used as part of the Russian investigation. At trial, the prosecution was persuaded to concede that prison conditions in Russia had not improved since the court’s decision in Russian Federation v Trefilov, another case in which Peters & Peters successfully opposed a Russian extradition request. The extradition was therefore halted on the ground that it would breach article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment.