Spanish Court approves extradition of Taganrog programmer Lisov to US

Stanislav Lisov, a programmer from Taganrog, suspected of developing malicious software, will be extradited to the United States. This decision was made by the Spanish court.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 13, Stanislav Lisov was detained in Barcelona at a request from the FBI and Interpol. The programmer from Taganrog is suspected of developing a virus called NeverQuest, used to steal bank data. The damage from his actions is estimated at 5 million US dollars, the Spanish police reported. Stanislav Lisov pleads not guilty.

The National High Court of Spain has approved the extradition of Stanislav Lisov to the US, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

The Court has concluded that "the US jurisdiction is competent to conduct a trial on those facts." Besides, the Court has also noted that although the suspect was not in the United States, "most of the victims lived in that country, and the crime was committed via the Internet."

The Court has not taken into account the arguments of Stanislav Lisov's advocate about the absence of jurisdiction for the US authorities, the lack of specific evidence, and the fact that an international warrant for arrest was issued after Stanislav Lisov had been detained.

According to advocate Oleg Gubarev, if his client is extradited to the US, he will face up to 35 years of imprisonment. The programmer is expected to be involved in a case against Russian hackers, suspected of interfering in the election of the US President, the "Kommersant" reports with reference to the advocate.

The defence of Stanislav Lisov plans to file an appeal against the decision pronounced by the Spanish Court.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.