Kazakhstan agreed to extradite Kislitsyn to Russia

FACCT employee (former Group-IB in Russia and the CIS) Nikita Kislitsyn, who was detained in Kazakhstan at the request of the United States, will be extradited to Russia, Kazakhstan refused to extradite the Russian to the States. This was reported in the Consulate General of Russia, transmits TASS.

“By a court decision, Kislitsyn was subjected to extradition arrest for a period of 12 months at the request of Russia, there will be no extradition to the United States,” said Artem Oganov, consul adviser to the Russian Consulate General in Alma-Ata.

Kislitsyn was detained at the request of the United States in Kazakhstan on June 22. Later on June 28 Tverskoy Court of Moscow announced him on the wanted list under Part 3 of Art. 272 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (illegal access to legally protected information using his official position) and granted the request of the investigation for arrest in absentia. As a source familiar with the circumstances of the case noted in a conversation with Vedomosti, the Russian side could initiate a criminal case in order to extradite Kislitsyn not to the United States, but to Russia, there is already a precedent for this. Under this article in Russia he faces up to five years in prison.

Oganov explainedthat the Code of Criminal Procedure of Kazakhstan provides for extradition only if the statute of limitations has not expired for the crime. According to Oganov, the statute of limitations has already expired on the US charges. According to FACCT, the US claims against Kislitsyn are not related to work in the company, but to “a case more than 10 years ago when Nikita worked as a journalist and independent researcher.” In addition, Deputy Prosecutor General of Kazakhstan Ulan Baizhanov arguedthat the Russian extradition request for Kislitsyn takes precedence over the American one because of his citizenship.

In 2020, the US authorities accused Kislitsyn, who was at that time a top manager of Group-IB, of conspiring to sell data that his accomplice stole from the Formspring social network in 2012. The company then called the accusations unsubstantiated and noted that the alleged the crimes occurred prior to Kislitsyn’s employment with Group-IB.