US court turns down Russian suspected hacker’s lawyer request for release

U.S. District Court in Guam has turned down a request for release from lawyer of Russian citizen Roman Seleznev, Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood ruled on Thursday.

The lawyer insisted that Seleznev was detained on the Maldive Islands, an island nation in the Indian Ocean-Arabian Sea area, by U.S. security services, but not local authorities that violates the law. However, the judge stated that if to assume that these suppositions were true they cannot be considered as a shocking and indignant conduct which makes court proceedings on the release of the defendant impossible.
Meanwhile, Judge Tydingco-Gatewood noted that the court decision did not rule out that Seleznev’s lawyers could not bring the issue of release of their client in a U.S. court in Washington DC, where this criminal case will be tried.
A next court session is expected to be held in Guam on Thursday when lawyers will try to find where detained Roman Seleznev was the very man American security services wanted to arrest in Male, the capital of the Republic of Maldives, on July 5. After this the trial should be moved to Washington DC.
American law enforcement agencies accused Seleznev, 30, of hacking and stealing of personal data. Maldivian citizen Sharafullah Shihab who witnessed Seleznev’s detention testified at the U.S. District Court in Guam that U.S. secret agents, but not Maldivian state officials, detained the Russian in violation of all laws.