Zeman accuses ex-justice minister of pandering to foreign power

President Miloš Zeman has lashed out at former justice minister Robert Pelikán for allowing the extradition of Russian hacker Yevgeniy Nikulin to the United States in 2018. In an interview on TV Barrandov, Mr. Zeman said that the former justice minister was not supposed to “act like a servile subaltern official, who panders to a foreign power”.

The statement came following a ruling by the Constitutional Court, which stated that the Ministry of Justice had erred in the decision to extradite Mr. Nikulin before a definitive resolution regarding his asylum application, including a subsequent judicial review, had been made. The former minister has so far refused to comment on the issue.

Yevgeniy Nikulin was arrested in Prague in 2016 on an American warrant. The US Embassy subsequently asked the Czech Republic do extradite the suspect, who is accused of hacking major internet firms.