TBILISI. Jan 11 (Interfax) - A Ukrainian court has found unconvincing evidence furnished by the Georgian prosecution service against Oleg Melnikov, a high-ranking Georgian official being held at a Kyiv detention facility, and denied his extradition to Georgia.
Georgian media reported on Friday with reference to Ukrainian sources that a Kyiv court extended Melnikov's preliminary detention by 12 months.
The Georgian Chief Prosecutor's Office has accused Melnikov, a former high-ranking official of the Georgian Interior Ministry's Constitutional Security Department, of abuse of office and involvement in killing Georgian citizen Sandro Girgvliani in 2006.
The Georgian prosecution agencies declared Melnikov internationally wanted after he left Georgia on December 2, 2012, and he was detained in Kyiv on December 7.
Along with Melnikov, former head of the Constitutional Security Department Data Akhalaya and high-ranking officials from this department, Soso Topuridze and Geronty Alania, were also declared internationally wanted under the same case after leaving Georgia.