But Prison Says It Has Not Received a Summons From the Court
The Court of Appeal is scheduled to hold a hearing on Thursday on whether to extradite convicted Russian pedophile Molodyakov Stanislav to face trial in Moscow where he is also wanted on charges for sex crimes against children, a court official said yesterday. However, prison officials and Stanislav’s lawyer claim they have not received a request to send the convicted pedophile to the court.
This is the appellate court’s third attempt to hear the extradition case against 43-year-old Stanislav, who was arrested in Cambodian under the alias Alexander Trofimov in September 2007 on multiple charges of abusing children.
The appeal court scheduled hearings for Stanislav in July and August last year but both times authorities failed to deliver Stanislav from Preah Sihanouk Provincial Prison to the courtroom in Phnom Penh.
“The appeal court judge has prepared the hearing of Alexander Trofimov for June 10,” Prosecutor-General Ouk Savuth said yesterday.
Stanislav, who is serving 17 years in prison for sexually abusing 21 underage Cambodian girls, was at the time of his arrest the executive director of Koh Puos Investment Group, a firm developing a $300 million holiday resort on a Preah Sihanouk province island.
Interpol says that Stanislav is wanted in Moscow for sex crimes against children.
Thursday’s scheduled “hearing will deal with [Stanislav’s] extradition to Russia and does not relate to another case,” the prosecutor-general added.
The Court of Appeal’s first attempt at an extradition hearing was on July 30, but as it was explained then, a court clerk had incorrectly sent the summons to Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison, and not to Preah Sihanouk Provincial Prison where Stanislav is being held.
Then on Aug 11, the appeal court once again tried to hear the extradition case, but Heng Huon, who was director of Preah Sihanouk Provincial Prison at the time, decided not to send the prisoner because Stanislav asked the prison chief for a delay. Mr Heng was removed as director in September last year after he admitted to allowing Stanislav out of the prison to visit his multi-million dollar Koh Puos beachside investment project.
Koh Puos Investment Group has consistently declined to comment on Stanislav’s status with the company.
Preah Sihanouk Prison’s new director, Sok Soaphea, said yesterday that he did not know if he would send Stanislav to Thursday’s hearing because he had not received a request from the court to do so.
“I am not sure whether I will send [Stanislav] or not,” Mr Soaphea said, adding that he required a signed request from Heng Hak, director-general of the Interior Ministry’s general department of prisons, in order to deliver a prisoner to the court.
“I have not received news about the case,” he said.
Mr Hak, the prison department chief, said yesterday that he had not received a request from the Court of Appeal to deliver Stanislav to his extradition hearing because such requests are sent to the summoned convict’s prison directly.
Stanislav’s lawyer, Saing Vannak, said that he too had not received a summons from the Court of Appeal.
“Maybe [Stanislav’s] assistant got the summons,” he said.
Contacted later yesterday, Mr Savuth, the Prosecutor-General at the Court of Appeal, said that he did not understand why the prison chief and the prison department chief and Stanislav’s lawyer claimed they had not received Stanislav’s summons to the Thursday hearing.
“The appeal court gave the summons to all of them,” Mr Savuth said. Stanislav’s “extradition case will be heard on June 10.”
A diplomat at the Russian Embassy said yesterday that she was aware of the extradition request but did not have any details on Stanislav’s case in Moscow.
