LITHUANIA: Authorities to extradite suspected Belarussian spy Sergey Monich to Poland

A Belarussian man suspected of spying against Polish interests lost his appeal on Thursday (January 11) against extradition to Poland from Lithuania where he was detained. Sergey Monich, 40, was detained in a joint operation by Lithuanian and Polish security services in Vilnius last November. A month later a Vilnius regional court said there were no reasons he could not be extradited to Poland. "The regional court's decision was just and reasoned," judge Aloyzas Kruopys told the court as he rejected Monich's appeal. Lithuanian prosecutor Rozita Pozarskiene told the court Monich was suspected of trying to recruit a Pole to spy on the Polish Foreign Ministry. She said he had met his informant several times in Prague, offering money for names and contact lists of Polish diplomats. She expected him to handed over to Poland next week. Monich had denied he was a spy. His lawyers argued his detention violated the European convention on human rights and that he was deprived of "a just trial". "He (Sergey Monich) has the possibility to write for an application to the European Court of Human Rights and as I said yesterday, we will do this," said Monich's lawyer Albertas Bendzius after the verdict. Belarussian diplomats were angry over the decision, as well. "Someone is trying to spoil Belarussian and Lithuanian relations, which have been very good so far," Belarussian Consul Anatoly Zhaltovsky told reporters after the ruling.

ITN Source | January 12, 2007

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