A Bulgarian court on Thursday refused to extradite a Russian businessman wanted on tax charges, fearing he will not receive a fair trial after criticizing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Alexey Alchin — who has lived in Bulgaria since 2014 — publicly burned his Russian passport in front of the consulate in the coastal city of Varna as part of a demonstration against the war in Ukraine in February.
The 46-year-old entrepreneur has been accused of tax evasion worth 282.5 million rubles ($4.7 million) in Russia.
Alchin told Bulgarian media that although the accusations of tax evasion date back to 2018, it was only in April that Moscow started to search for him through the international criminal police agency Interpol.
This was shortly after he published a speech on social media opposing the war.
But on Thursday the Court of Appeal in Varna said it would not extradite him back to his home country.
The court concluded there was a “risk of aggravation of his situation due to his political convictions and a violation of his rights during the criminal trial”.
The statement said the decision had referenced two European Parliament resolutions and a report by the NGO Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, which warned Russia had “stepped up repression against demonstrators and civil society activists protesting against the war”.
Refusing to extradite Alchin, the court said, is also similar to decisions made in other European countries who have denied extradition requests from Russia “on the basis of a lack of confidence in the will of this country to fulfil its obligations in accordance with international law”.
Demonstrations supporting the entrepreneur have been held in Bulgaria in recent weeks, including in the capital Sofia along with calls for the government to grant him asylum in the country.