Baratov mulls giving up extradition fight: lawyer
Accused Ancaster hacker Karim Baratov is thinking about giving up his fight against extradition to the U.S., where he is accused in an alleged Russian hack of Yahoo emails.
The move would speed things up and send Baratov directly to the U.S. to face the charges, his lawyer Amedeo DiCarlo said. “I have faith it’ll go better there.”
Baratov, 22, was in a Hamilton court briefly Friday to set a date for his extradition hearing, but was granted a postponement to July 7.
DiCarlo said outside court he may waive extradition because several visits to the U.S. for meetings with the FBI, the Washington District Attorney and the state prosecutor for California, where the charges were laid, have led him to believe Baratov is “a small fish” in the whole scheme.
Baratov was arrested at his Ancaster home on March 14 after U.S. authorities charged him with aggravated identity theft and conspiring to commit fraud, in connection with a hacking scheme allegedly organized by Russian intelligence agents. American authorities want Baratov, a Canadian citizen born in Kazakhstan, extradited to the U.S. to face the charges.
The scheme is said to have breached about 500 million Yahoo email accounts and targeted diplomats, bureaucrats and others for political or financial gain.
Last week, an Ontario Appeal Court upheld a Hamilton judge’s ruling denying Baratov bail as he was considered a flight risk.
If Baratov were to consent to extradition, it doesn’t mean he’s admitting to guilt, DiCarlo said. “This is a U.S. case, U.S. charges. That’s where it should be.”