U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE TO PRESENT CASE TO NEW YORK COURT FOR PAVEL BORODIN'S EXTRADITION








MOSCOW, March 12. /RIA Novosti correspondent Maria Lokotetskaya/. The American attorney's office, supporting the request of the prosecutor's office of Switzerland for the extradition of Pavel Borodin, is to present before March 27 to New York Brooklyn court its objections to the arguments of lawyers of Pavel Borodin, state secretary of the Russia-Byelorussia Union.


	This was stated by Eleonora Sergeyeva, defence lawyer of Borodin who is currently in New York prison. According to her, the defence has already turned over to the court its case arguing the groundlessness of the request by the prosecutor's office of Switzerland to extradite Borodin. The lawyer does not believe that Borodin "is the accused either in Russia or Switzerland" and the Swiss warrant was issued "not to detain but to forcibly bring in a witness". No sufficient grounds were adduced for Borodin's arrest.


	Commenting on a possible extradition verdict by Brooklyn court, Sergeyeva emphasised that the court must take into account a ruling passed by the prosecution chamber of Geneva canton in the case of Mercata-Trading firm. According to this ruling, Daniel Devaud, the Swiss investigating judge, failed to present any documents for evidence of crime in the given case.


	Borodin's another lawyer, Genrikh Padva, calls attention to the fact that the American attorney's office in fact acknowledged "the significance of the political aspect of the case". At the same time, in the lawyer's view, "it will be difficult to prove directly that Switzerland seeks to extradite Borodin for political motives".


	Borodin was detained at New York airport on January 17 2001 under letters sent by the Swiss prosecutor's office, which is investigating the so-called criminal case of Mercata-Trading. The management of that company is suspected by the Geneva prosecutor's office of giving former Kremlin officials a 62 million dollar kickback, with $25 million claimed to be handed to Borodin, who was the property manager in Boris Yeltsin's administration.