A court in Brazil hasdenied requests by the United States and Russia to extradite an accused Russian spy posing as a Brazilian citizen, the country's justice ministry said Thursday.Sergei Cherkasov, 37, is in prison in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia for using false personal documents after being deported from the Netherlands.
Cherkasov, who is accused of posing as a Brazilian student seeking an internship with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, is under investigation for espionage.Russia requested Cherkasovs extradition last year on drug trafficking charges, while Washington is seeking his extradition on charges of acting as a foreign agent as well as visa, bank and wire fraud.Brazils Supreme Court provisionally agreed in March to send Cherkasov to Russia after completing its own investigation into his espionage.But on Thursday, Brazils Ministry of Justice and Public Security said it had suspended Russias request and called Washingtons request unfounded because of the Brazilian Supreme Courts approval of Moscows petition.At the moment, [Cherkasov] will remain imprisoned in Brazil, Brazils Justice Minister Flvio Dinotweeted.The denial is a blow to United States hopes of including Cherkasov in a potential prisoner exchange for Americans whom the Biden administration considers wrongfully detained in Russia, The Wall Street Journalreported Thursday.One of them is WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is has been in pre-trial detention in Moscow since late March on espionage charges that he and the newspaper deny.WSJ cited an unidentified top Brazilian government official as saying that the preliminary decision on Cherkasov is subject to review by authorities.A Brazilian court ruled Monday to reduce Cherkasovs prison sentence for document fraud from 15 years to five years, WSJ reported.
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