PILATUS BANK

Efimova extradition case to be heard by Greek court on 12 April

A Greek court is scheduled to hear a Maltese extradition request Russian Pilatus Bank whistleblower Maria Efimova on April, it was reported yesterday.

The warrant for Efimova’s arrest deals with an alleged misappropriation of funds from the bank when she worked there.

A Greek lawyer for Efimova told Reuters in an interview published yesterday that his client fears for her life if she is extradited to Malta.

Efimova is the source of the Egrant-Michelle Muscat accusation, in which the Prime Minister’s wife is accused of owning a third Panamanian company, Egrant, that was set up at the same time as the Panamanian companies of Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri.

Efimova has been held in the women’s wing of the Korydallos maximum security prison in Athens since she handed herself in to the Greek police earlier this month.

Her Greek lawyer, Alexandros Papasteriopoulos told Reuters TV in an interview in Athens that she turned herself in because she felt there was a risk to her safety.

“She received a message that, ‘you have to protect yourself’ and therefore she went to seek for this protection from the Greek police,” he said. He did not say who sent Efimova the message.

Efimova denies the charges levelled by her former employers and says she had permission to use the money, around €2,000. Papasteriopoulos said she has also filed a lawsuit against the bank for unpaid wages.

“She says that ‘I will never have any fair trial in Malta and I am directly afraid of (sic) my life’, this is very clear,” Papasteriopoulos said.

On Tuesday anti-corruption activists in Malta wrote to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urging him to grant asylum to Efimova, but Papasteriopoulos said it was unlikely that she would request it.

“Malta is a European member state and it’s quite difficult to prove that the rule of law is severely violated there, so I don’t think that at the time being she thinks of submitting a political asylum request in Greece,” he said.