Russia’s former banker Alexander Konanykhin has finally got the U.S. political asylum status after he lived 15 years in the United States, spent 15 months in prisons, withstood 6 hearings in federal and immigration courts.
Photo: Yury Gripas
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Escaped Banker Acknowledged Victim of Russia
Russia’s former banker Alexander Konanykhin has finally got the U.S. political asylum status after he lived 15 years in the United States, spent 15 months in prisons, withstood 6 trials in federal and immigration courts.
Judge John Bryant of Federal Immigration Court of Alexandria-town revived Tuesday the political asylum status for Alexander Konanykhin, former owner of All-Russia’s Exchange Bank.
According to the files of the court sitting, Konanykhin managed to prove that, as an outspoken critic of Presidents Yeltsin and Putin, he would face the threat of mortal danger if he was deported to Russia.
So, Alexandria’s Court didn’t share the opinion of the U.S. government, whereby Konanykhin had failed to provide definite evidences that his deportation to Russia will entail political prosecution. Instead, it took into consideration that the politically-motivated murders are being committed in Russia and political opponents of leadership, for instance, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Boris Berezovsky, undergo criminal prosecution.
The attempt of the U.S. government to persuade Judge Bryant that the former banker is wanted in Russia for criminal not for political reasons wasn’t successful. Surprisingly, the Court ignored the argument that, in 1992, Konanykhin illegally transferred from his bank to the personal accounts $8.1 million and the Swiss court ruled to freeze his assets.
So, for the second time in the last eight years, Judge Bryant upheld Konanykhin instead of the Department of Justice, which strong desire is to deport that businessman from the country.
Of interest is that Konanykhin ran the U.S. operations of Bank MENATEP for several years after arriving in America in 1992.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 20, 2007
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