American Kent David Lee's complaint over his extradition from Russia to be reconsidered

The Meshchansky Municipal Court has fixed November 13 as the date for a repeated consideration of the complaint lodged by American Kent David Lee against the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation over his extradition from Russia in 1997, said Yelena Zinger, the representative of the plaintiff in court.

On September 24th, the hearings were postponed as Boris Kuznetsov, the main lawyer of the American national, was engaged in the hearings of another case.

Earlier, the regional court considered the complaint, but on December 23rd, 1999 it was dismissed. The American debated the decision in the Moscow City Court, but the Appeal Board and the Presidium of the Moscow City Court found the decision lawful. On April 2, 2002 the Russian Supreme Court canceled the decision, and the complaint was directed to the Meshchansky court for reconsideration.

Kent David Lee, who headed in Russia a branch of the American East View Publications (EVP) information company, was extradited from Russia in 1997 on suspicion of espionage.

The Moscow branch was opened in 1992. The EVP was officially engaged in obtaining and disseminating around the world printed materials both in the original and in reproductions, i.e. microfilms and microfiches. But, as the Russian secret service found out, the branch obtained in Russia classified information.

The ground for Lee's extradition from Russia was the established fact that he had offered one Russian citizen (some Lev Rozhansky) money for secret documents.

It has been established that Rozhansky and Lee tried to obtain information, secret information included, which was not provided for by special agreements, by bribing Russians.

The Federal Security Service closed the criminal case with regard to Rozhansky. According to Lee's lawyers, the FSB documents did not contain any other evidence of Lee committing offences which could serve as the ground for his extradition.