MOSCOW. Feb 21 (Interfax) - The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has not sent any requests for the extradition of Russian citizens Alexander Shadrov and Vladimir Dolgov to Russia from Libya and did not have any correspondence with the relevant Libyan authorities on the issue of their extradition, the press service for the Russian Prosecutor General's Office told Interfax on Thursday.
The source said no decisions on the extradition of the convicted Russians have been made for that reason.
On August 27, 2011, the Libyan rebel battalion Kakaa detained Russian citizens Vladimir Dolgov and Alexander Shadrov and some citizens of Ukraine and Belarus (25 people all in all). The people were charged with having restored military equipment used by the Gaddafi regime "to destroy the people of Libya."
The people were released with assistance from Russian Embassy officials on September 3, but were detained again on September 6 to investigate their possible involvement in the maintenance and modernization of tanks for the Gaddafi forces.
On June 4, 2012, a Libyan court found Shadrov to be the head of the group of "mercenaries" and sentenced him to life in prison. The other detainees were sentenced to ten years in prison.
On February 15, Russian Foreign Ministry official Alexander Lukashevich told reporters Russia is taking measures to return Russian citizens Shadrov and Dolgov from Libya to Russia.
"I can assure you that exhaustive measures are being taken to find a solution to this problem and promptly return out citizens to Russia. We are using both official and other channels. We also work with international non-governmental organizations that campaign for human rights in foreign countries," Lukashevich said.