Arcadi Gaydamak, who was yesterday sentenced in abstentia in France to six years imprisonment for illegal arms trading to Angola, is unlikely to find himself behind bars anytime soon. He is currently residing in Russia, and while France has a warrant for his arrest, even if he is he is extradited to France, he would have to be retried, since he was not present at the current trial.
The trial was held in order to prevent the the charges against him becoming void under the statute of limitations.
Meanwhile, Gaydamak is not wanted by the Israeli authorities. His Israeli attorneys are divided about whether he will return to Israel or not. The Office of the State Prosecutor is monitoring the developments in France, but only if he is absent from at least one court hearing can the State Prosecutor International Division issue an international arrest warrant for him, because in Israel a person cannot be tried in abstentia for serious crimes. Gaydamak is accused of fraud and money laundering of NIS 650 million.
Gaydamak's Israeli attorneys, Adv. David Libai, Shlomo Ben-Arie, and Ronen Rosenblum, have not spoken with him since yesterday's verdict in France. When the Israeli indictment was filed, Gaydamak asked Libai to state, "Gaydamak will return to Israel and attend the trial, in order to show that the indictment is baseless and that he is being unjustly persecuted."
This declaration has not yet been put to the test, because yesterday's reading of the indictment was postponed because some of Gaydamak's attorneys have not received the investigation material. They will appear before Tel Aviv District Court Judge Gilad Neuthal on November 2 to set a new date.
Israel, France, and Russia are all signatories to the European Convention on Extradition, and have already extradited citizens between them. Gaydamak's next moves will probably depend on a decision about whether he holds Russian citizenship, since Russia generally does not let its citizens to be extradited to other countries.
In February 2009, Gaydamak applied for Russian citizenship, which will block his extradition to France. However, an investigation by "Globes" found that he still holds Israeli citizenship, and therefore cannot get Russian citizenship, because Russia does not permit dual-citizenship. If he holds Russian citizenship, he is not expected to return to Israel for fear of being convicted in an Israeli court and/or being extradited to France.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 28, 2009
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