Alleged Bitcoin Launderer Vinnik Wants to get a ‘Fair Trial’ by announcing Hunger Strike

The lawyer for Alexander Vinnik who is the alleged former operator of defunct cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e said that his defendant will go on a hunger strike on Monday, Russian state-owned news outlet TASS reported on November 23.

According to Timofey Musatov, the head of the lawyers who are representing Vinnik, the reason given for the hunger strike is that Vinnik was stripped of the right for defense in France and then consequently in Greece.

Greece’s supreme court had ruled to extradite Vinnik to U.S. last year.  He now faces charges of money laundering and fraud. In June this year, a Greek court ruled to extradite Vinnik to France. The Greek Supreme Court discussed Vinnik’s extradition to France on November 19th. However, it postponed the ruling to November 29, as TASS reports.

According to TASS, Musatov has also accused the judge of the Greek Supreme Court of ignoring him and his team.

The lawyer stated that if there is no fair trial, Vinnik will inevitably be deported to the United States through France, where he can get a life sentence, which equals death.

He clarified Vinnik’s reasoning stating that after observing this situation, Vinnik realized that he would either get a fair trial or die.

The head of the team of lawyers explained that his defendant understood that he does not have any other options and hence decided to go on a hunger strike on Monday in protest against the situation.

According to Musatov, Vinnik came to this conclusion when his Greek lawyer, Zoe Konstantopoulou, openly said during the November 19 court session that the court would not treat any citizen of an E.U. member country or Greece as it treats Alexander only because he is a Russian national.

Konstantopoulou has also accused the Greek Supreme Court of violating her defendant’s rights by not able to provide translations of court documents at his request.