Peters & Peters represented a Russian businessman, DS, in relation to an extradition request from the Russian Federation. The case was described as “quite extraordinary” by  Senior District Judge Arbuthnott. The extradition request was for DS to stand trial for his alleged role in orchestrating an attempted murder.  The person convicted of the attempted murder blamed another at the time of his trial some 3 years previously.  Then, as part of a campaign of extortion against DS, the hitman changed his story and named DS and his associate as the people who ordered the murder.  DS was told that if he did not pay he would be prosecuted.  DS paid and the accusation was renounced, but then repeated less than a year later.

Whilst in custody DS’s associate was tortured and pressured to implicate DS.  When put on trial the co-accused’s case was moved from judge to judge.  Where a judge made a decision thought to be poor by the Russian authorities, the case was moved to another judge.

We carefully analysed and presented a clear summary of the underlying Russian process.  DS was discharged from extradition summarily on the basis of article 3 ECHR (in line with Russia’s poor general prison conditions and the absence of an effective monitoring mechanism for prison condition assurances) and, in a first, on article 6 ECHR.