Lawyer Boris Kuznetsov gets political asylum in the States

Lawyer Boris Kuznetsov who earlier defended ex-senator from Kalmykia Levon Chakhmakhchyan and was suspected of disclosing state secrets was granted political asylum in the United States.

"I can state for sure that Boris Kuznetsov has received political asylum in the USA," Kuznetsov's New York advocate Boris Palant has reported.

According to his story, an official letter from the Department that deals with the issues of granting political asylum arrived on Friday, February 15.

The advocate has added that what is left is the mandatory formal procedure of checking Kuznetsov's criminal past, the RIA "Novosti" informs.

The "Caucasian Knot" reported earlier that on July 11, 2007, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow found advocate Boris Kuznetsov guilty of disclosing state secrets during his defence of ex-senator Levon Chakhmakhchyan. And on August 15, the Moscow City Court recognized his attraction to criminal liability to be lawful.

The point is that Kuznetsov had passed over to the Constitutional Court certain materials on his client's case stating that special agencies were illegally tapping Chakhmakhchyan's telephones when he had been still using parliamentary immunity. Kuznetsov himself confirmed that he had left his homeland for fear of his freedom.