EU – Baltic States, Internet, Latvia, Legislation, Technology, USA

As LETA was informed by the Cabinet of Ministers' expert in international human rights institutions Kristine Lice, the government has until October 24 to appeal the decision, but has decided not to do so.

As reported, the ECHR ruled this past July that Latvian cyber-crimes suspect Deniss Calovskis cannot be extradited to the United States yet, and indicated to the Latvian government not to expel Calovskis until the judgment became final or until the Court took a further decision on this matter.

Lice said at the time that the ECHR also ruled that there was no violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights in regard to the granting of Calovskis’ extradition to the United States. ''Calovkis can be extradited, but since this judgement has not come into force, the court has ruled that the government cannot make any further decision on this matter until the ruling has come into force,'' Lice explained.

LETA also reported, the government decided in August of 2013 to extradite Calovskis to the United States, however his attorneys turned to the ECHR, claiming that the extradition be put on hold until Calovskis' case is reviewed by court, and the ECHR halted the extradition process.

U.S. law enforcement institutions have brought charges against three alleged East European cyber thieves accused of stealing banking information from computers across Europe and the United States, including Calovskis.

Meanwhile, Attorney Saulvedis Varpins, representing Calovskis, previously said that his client continues to categorically deny his involvement in the criminal group which used the ''Gozi Virus'' to access computer systems and steal personal banking information. Varpins told LETA previously that Calovskis has never admitted that he deliberately created or improved such a computer virus for such aims, and has not received any kind of payment for his services. ''Furthermore, we have not seen any kind of evidence confirming the U.S. point of view that Calovskis was involved with some sort of cyber-crime ring,'' Varpins said.