Russia extradited an MMA fighter to the Belarusian authorities despite the ban of the European Court

Russia handed over to the law enforcement agencies of Belarus the MMA fighter Alexei Kudin, who was prosecuted after the protests in August 2020. About it reported Belarusian Sports Solidarity Fund with reference to the athlete’s lawyer. On July 21, Aleksey Kudin was in a pre-trial detention center in Zelenograd, and in the morning of the next day it became known that he had been taken to Belarus.

On Wednesday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) banned Russia from extraditing Kudin due to the fact that in Belarus he could be tortured and persecuted. “The European Court agreed with the arguments about the persecution and the possibility of torture against Aleksey Kudin. We were given the 39th rule, according to which there is a ban on extradition, that is, Alexei must be in Russia until the final decision is made by the European Court, ”said fund lawyer of the Civic Assistance Committee Maria Krasova.

Despite this, on the same day, the Moscow Court of Appeal upheld the decision to extradite Kudin to his homeland, write Open Media. The Sports Solidarity Fund noted that Kudin was “secretly” taken to Belarus, and also announced the names of four Belarusian security officials who escorted the athlete.

Alexei Kudin, who fled to Moscow from Belarus, was detained at the end of January 2021. At home, a criminal case was opened against him for resisting a police officer (part 2 of article 363 of the Criminal Code) at a protest action on August 10, 2020 in Molodechno. Then Kudin went for a walk to the city center to find out something about the situation in the country, because at that time the Internet was blocked. There, several riot policemen attacked him with truncheons. The athlete knocked out two security officials. A story about it led Belsat.

“I raised my hands, showed that my palms were clean,” Kudin recalled that day. – A soldier from the second line shot gas at me. I managed to deviate to the side. I was hit on the head with a truncheon because of the shield. I got it five times. “

After the blow, Kudin, according to him, “turned around on the machine” and tore the shield out of the hands of a law enforcement officer. “This is the instinct of self-preservation, I have been doing martial arts for more than twenty years,” the athlete added.

With the back of his hand, Kudin hit the security officer in the cheekbone. “He falls down tight – just a knockout, – said the master of mixed martial arts. – At this moment I feel the second blow from the side. I manage to dodge and put a good side on it in the glass. Then I found out that I gave it to him so that I launched it into space. His helmet glass shattered. “

The athlete struck another riot policeman in the upper jaw and damaged a tooth. According to Kudin, the second security official “also fought out.” And the third riot policeman, after hitting the athlete, “fell under the bench.”

The next morning, the police came to the athlete’s home, shot him point-blank in front of his wife and two small children, severely beat him and took the detainee in handcuffs to the hospital. After Kudin failed to appear in court and was put on the wanted list, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Belarus sent a request to the Russian side to extradite the suspect.

Alexey Kudin is a multiple world kickboxing and Thai boxing champion and an honored master of sports. His manager, Artem Kharlanov, said that the fighter did not participate in the protests, but happened to be at the rally site by accident. “He did not take part in any protest actions, but simply happened to be among the eyewitnesses of what was happening between the protesters and the police,” he said. Several dozen honored athletes, including prize-winners of the Olympics, signed an appeal to the State Duma, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Olympic Committee with a request to grant Kudin political asylum.