Moldovan extradition to be heard on Friday

By Andria Kades

THE extradition hearing for a 30-year-old man from Moldova, held in custody in connection to a $3.5m fraud case, was adjourned to Friday after he requested legal aid claiming he does not have the money to pay for his own lawyer.

Held in the central prisons since August 29, the suspect was arrested in Cyprus a day earlier with an international arrest warrant issued by the United States in connection to allegations of a $3.5m fraud where he apparently transferred the sum to a bank in a third country.

Following his request on Wednesday, Eleni Loizidou representing the prosecution, called for his request to be submitted to the welfare service so they could evaluate his financial situation enabling the court to take a decision.

Paphos district court judge Panicos Michaelidis ordered the case be adjourned to 10.30 am on Friday and the suspect would remain in custody at the central prisons in Nicosia.

The 30-year-old is accused of conspiring with others to illegally transfer sums in excess of $3.5m from the computer of a clerk at a company to a bank in a third country. He is suspected of having conspired to defraud a bank and commit computer fraud in the US between August 2012 and August 2015.

Paphos CID arrested him after an Interpol wire revealed he had arrived in Cyprus on August 21 and was staying in Paphos. During a search of his dwelling, he consented to the search of a computer, which was seized as evidence. Justice minister Ionas Nicolaou has already authorised the initiation of proceedings for his extradition to the US.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.