Neo-Nazi’s lawyers claim political persecution
The arrest of a Russian neo-Nazi leader in Havana and his possible extradition to Moscow were hot topics in the Russian press this weekend.
Maxim “Machete” Martsinkevich, 30, was detained Friday (Jan. 17) by Cuban police at Interpol’s request, on criminal charges of inciting racial hatred and gay-bashing in his native Russia. He had reportedly fled to the island early in December, days before the charges were filed.
[For background, read “Cuba arrests Russian neofascist…” in Progreso Weekly of Jan. 18.]
When — and, by some accounts, if — the Cuban government will extradite Martsinkevich is a question being asked throughout the Russian media. The “if” issue has been raised by two lawyers who have counseled Martsinkevich in previous court cases and likely will advise him in this one, Matvei Tsen and Alexei Mikhalchik.
Both gave a hint of their planned defense strategy.
Mikhalchik told the Life News website that “according to the information I get, [Martsinkevich] is being treated politely and correctly” by his captors in Havana. “They know that Maxim is well known in Russia and communicate with him properly.”
According to Mikhalchik, the Russian Interior Ministry “is trying to convey to the Cuban authorities that Martsinkevich is suspected of criminal offenses. We are trying to convey to the government of Cuba that our client is suspected of crimes of an ideological nature.”
“We will raise the issue that [Russia’s] persecution of ‘Tesak’ has a political component,” the lawyer said, using his client’s nickname, which in Russian means machete.
“And that means a lot, because the Cuban authorities protect those who are persecuted in other countries for political reasons,” he added.
Earlier, Tsen had said that he would not rule out that Martsinkevich had asked — or would ask — Cuba for political asylum.
“The Russian authorities must prove that he will be tried in Moscow for a criminal offense not connected with politics,” he told the ITAR-TASS news agency.
A lawyer consulted by the Ridus news service said that Tsen may be looking “too optimistically” on the political-persecution defense, pointing out that it failed in the case of Ilya Goryachev, a Russian nationalist leader who fled to Serbia after being charged with murder and arms trafficking. Despite protestations of political persecution, Goryachev was extradited to Russia by Serbia last November.
“The Goryachev technique will not work in Cuba,” attorney Mark Feigin told Ridus. Given the warm relations between the two countries, “it is unlikely that Tsen’s protestations would even be taken into consideration. If we were talking about, say, Sweden, optimism would fill the sea — but we’re talking about Cuba.”
[ITAR-TASS quotes unidentified diplomats at the Russian Embassy in Havana as saying that Martsinkevich’s arrest reaffirms “the efficiency of interaction between Moscow and Havana in law enforcement, in the spirit of our bilateral strategic partnership.”]
Similarly, BBC News in Russian pointed to the case of Viacheslav Datsik, a former martial arts fighter with a history of violence and racist beliefs. He fled to Norway in 2010 after being charged with attempted robbery and asked for political asylum, alleging that he was persecuted for being a member of the Slavic Union, a nationalist group that has since been banned.
Datsik’s plea was denied and he was extradited in March 2011. He is serving a six-year prison term in St. Petersburg.
