Moscow hopes for early extradition by Georgia of terrorist gunmen

Moscow hopes that Georgia will soon extradite the gunmen detained on charges of terrorism and committing other particularly grave crimes, said Alexander Yakovenko, official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, on Wednesday.

Yakovenko said that the decision of the European Court of Human Rights "deprives Tbilisi of legal grounds for refusing to extradite the terrorists and handing them over to Russian justice in keeping with European standards and commitments under international law."

On November 26, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg decided to satisfy Russia's protest and cancel the instructions to Georgia to halt the extradition of the gunmen detained in Georgia.

The official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that "Moscow insists on the early fulfilment of the agreements reached between the presidents of Russia and Georgia on the extradition to the Russian side of the mentioned gunmen and international terrorists and handing them over to justice."