In the Kiev District Court of Kharkiv are investigating a case of Dzhihat Aliabeta (Turkish citizen, born in Syria) at the hand of who suffered about 350 residents of Kharkiv. In early 2008 a man organized a few private travel agencies in Kharkiv, sold airline tickets and fled to Turkey taking with him more than 2 million UAH.
According to the Head of International Legal Prosecutor’s Cooperation of the Kharkiv region Maxim Belousenko, prosecutor’s office has been strived for the extradition for 7 years and the justice done of the malefactor.
Sometime later, the Turkish law enforcement officers addressed to Kharkiv prosecutor’s office for help. It turns out that restless fraudster organized a similar scheme in his home country.
Maxim Belousenko told that it remained unsettled but in 2015 through Interpol channels the cheater “surfaced” again.
“We received a report that the citizen is detained on the territory of the Republic of Lebanon. We made a request with the entire package of documents translated into Arabic and sent to the Prosecutor General,” said Belousenko.
As explained the prosecutor, the extradition procedure is very long and meticulous. Sometimes extradition may last for several years even with the partner country which have signed an agreement on extradition of criminals. The case of Turkey cheater is unique because Ukraine hasn’t concluded such an agreement with Lebanon, the country could extradite only on “the principle of reciprocity and goodwill”.
“Few months later we received affirmative answer. Without any obligations and contracts Lebanon delivered us the criminal. The process took only 4 months after the arrest to the moment of delivery at the place of the trial,” concluded the prosecutor.
At the moment the fraudster is at the Kharkiv pretrial detention center. The indictment was sent to court, the case is under investigation. For the “appropriation of property in especially large sizes” the suspect faces up to 12 years in prison with confiscation.
