UK court adjourns Russian extradition case to 2010

By Jon Hemming

LONDON (Reuters) - A British court on Tuesday delayed until next August a hearing of a Russian request to extradite retail tycoon Yevgeny Chichvarkin to allow time to translate vast amounts of documentation.

Former mobile phone retailer Chichvarkin could be the first person to be extradited from Britain to Russia if he loses the case, though Moscow has repeatedly also demanded the return of prominent figures such as Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky.

Russian prosecutors have charged Chichvarkin with extortion and kidnapping while part of an organised criminal group.

Chichvarkin denies the charges, which are linked to his former business empire, and has said in the past he would be killed if he returns to Russia.

"I know that I am right and I am confident that the British legal system will give me a fair hearing," Chichvarkin told reporters outside Westminster Magistrates Court after the hearing on Tuesday.

Judge Quentin Purdy said the next hearing on August 2 would set a timetable for a full hearing. The court already has 29 volumes of documentation to translate into English from Russian.

The Russian Prosecutor-General's spokeswoman said in June that Chichvarkin had been charged with extortion and with kidnapping while taking part in an organised criminal group.

He was arrested in London on September 7 on the basis of a Russian extradition request, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court the same day and was released on bail of 100,000 pounds.