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| Svetlana Timofeeva; source: Instagram |
Even though Russia has a very poor human rights record and Igor Krasnov, head of the Russian institution that provided the guarantees, is under EU and US sanctions for human rights violations, the ministry approved the extradition request, as local media reports.
Svetlana Timofeeva, 33, is facing separate espionage charges brought by an Albanian prosecutor and is awaiting trial in Albania.
She guarantees she is basically a blogger keen on investigating deserted Cold Conflict period structures. She has published two photo books on these websites as well as on her Instagram account, which she uses to publish under the name Lana Sator and has approximately 254,000 followers.
Police found Timofeeva and two companions, one Russian and one Ukrainian, at a decaying weapons factory in Gramsh, south of Tirana, where AK-47 rifles were once manufactured. In August of last year, she was arrested in Albania.
She categorically denies being a Russian spy. She had previously stated in her blog that she had relocated to Georgia after publicly decrying the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“The request for the aforementioned subject's extradition had been processed by the Ministry of Justice, for whom the General Prosecution of the Russian Federation... in response to questions, the ministry informed BIRN that it had "guaranteed that the extradition request does not aim to prosecute this persona for political, racial, religious, ethnicity, or political views."
The ministry added, "We have forwarded the request to the General Prosecution in accordance with the provisions of the Penal Procedural Code and the European Convention on Extradition."
In central Albania, the Court of Elbasan is handling the Russian request. Timofeeva had opposed extradition.
The Ministry of Justice responded that the sanctions are limited to political and economic issues when asked by BIRN whether Western sanctions imposed on Russia can influence its position on the matter.
The ministry wrote, "Collaboration in the justice sector has no relationship with punitive measures, which are only political and economic."
Timofeeva's attorney, Isuf Shehu, criticized the ministry's position. Other lawyers for human rights were also shocked by BIRN and cited numerous evidence of Russian violations of human rights.
According to Shehu's statement to BIRN, "The Ministry of Justice should have had first evaluated the human rights situation in Russia before judging the merits of the extradition request."
He continued, "The Ministry of Justice has an obligation to verify whether the respective body in the requesting party, in this instance the General Prosecution [of Russia], truly respect human rights."
A human rights lawyer in Tirana named Dorjan Matlija emphasized the prevalence of such violations in Russia. A significant number of cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights demonstrate that the Russian Federation has committed numerous violations of human rights, as Matlija stated.
According to Matlija, the Ministry should not have accepted its "guarantees" at face value because Russia is no longer a party to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Before responding to the request, director of the Albania Helsinki Committee, Erida Skendaj, urged the Ministry to keep up with international news or reports from nations with a better understanding of the situation there.
She stated, "There is a potential high risk that she will be politically prosecuted, as has occurred with other people."
Lawyer and activist Gentjan Sejrani stated that Russia's guarantees were worthless. “It is like believing Russian statements that there are no current Russian violations of human rights in Ukraine,” he stated.
The case's public prosecutor, Mustafa Turku, told BIRN that his organization has no position on the matter. We are neither in or against it," Turku said.
The European Union and the United States have sanctioned Russia's General Prosecutor, Igor Krasnov, for "in his capacity as the General Prosecutor, [he] is responsible for serious human rights violations."
As a result of his role in the detention of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny in January 2021, Krasnov received sanction from the Council of the European Union.
According to the decision, "he is responsible for serious human rights violations, including the arbitrary detention of protesters" and "the widespread and systematic repression of freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, as well as freedom of opinion and expression."