Russia extradited fighter Kudin to Belarus in spite of the ECHR ban

As the TV channel " Dozhd " reports with reference to the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Fund, Moscow handed over the fighter at the request of Belarus. On the afternoon of July 21, Kudin was no longer in the pre-trial detention center in Zelenograd. On the morning of July 22, it became known that he had been secretly taken out of Russia.

The world famous Belarusian athlete, who competes in Muay Thai, kickboxing and mixed martial arts in the heavyweight division, Merited Master of Sports Alexei Kudin fled from Belarus to Russia after the 2020 protests that erupted amid the controversial results of the presidential elections in the country. The CEC awarded the victory in the race to the country's longtime leader, Alexander Lukashenko, but the opposition is convinced that the voting results were falsified. People took to the streets en masse, demanding fair elections. But the protests were brutally suppressed by the security forces.

A criminal case was opened against Kudin in Belarus for resisting a police officer (part 2 of article 363 of the Criminal Code of Belarus) at a protest rally on August 12, 2020 in Molodechno. He stated that he did not take part in the action, but “came to the rescue like an onlooker”, stood up for the people who were severely beaten by the security forces and inadvertently “inflicted bodily harm” on the riot police.

After the initiation of the case, Kudin fled to Moscow, where he was detained in January this year. Kudin was put on the wanted list after he failed to appear in court in November in a criminal case.

In Belarus, Kudin faces up to 5 years in prison. The Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus sent a request to the Russian side for its extradition. In defense of Kudin, a petition was created with a request not to extradite him, under which more than 300 famous athletes signed. She was sent to the Prosecutor General's Office, the Olympic Committee and the State Duma. Forecasting that torture awaits the fighter in Belarus, on July 21 the ECHR banned Russia from extraditing Kudin. However, in the evening of the same day, a court in Russia upheld the decision of the Prosecutor General's Office to extradite the fighter.