WARSAW – A Polish court ruled on Thursday that a second man suspected of attacking Leonid Volkov, an exiled top aide to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, will not be extradited to Lithuania. This decision follows a similar ruling regarding the other suspect last week.
The court determined that the men should not be sent to Lithuania because there are broader proceedings against them taking place in Poland. Volkov sustained injuries from hammer blows during the attack on March 12 outside his home in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. Two men suspected of the attack were arrested in Poland in April under a European Arrest Warrant issued by Lithuania.
The suspects, both Polish citizens, had been charged in Lithuania with intentionally causing minor bodily harm to Volkov due to his beliefs, an offense punishable by a fine or a jail term.
Alexei Navalny, the prominent Russian opposition leader, died in February while imprisoned in a Russian Arctic prison. Russian authorities have claimed that he died of natural causes. However, his supporters believe he was killed by the authorities, a charge that the Kremlin denies.