Former SSU general Naumov was released from prison in Serbia
Ex-General of the SSU Andrii Naumov was released from prison in Serbia, where he served a year of imprisonment for money laundering. His documents were taken away and he is still not allowed to leave the country.
This information was confirmed in the High Court of the city of Niš, Censor.NET reports with reference to the BBC.
The former SSU official was released from a Serbian prison in early December. However, due to the consideration of the appeal against the sentence, his documents were confiscated and he was forbidden to leave the territory of the country.
"He is not yet allowed to leave the country and his place of residence until the appeal process is completed," the court said.
Naumov's lawyers filed a complaint against the decision to ban him from leaving Serbia, arguing that there was a threat to the client's life, but the court did not satisfy it.
According to Naumov's defense attorney Oleksandr Ovchinnikov, as part of the extradition proceedings, the court established the existence of a real threat to Naumov's life, and he himself stated the dangers associated with his stay in Serbia.
The decision in Naumov's money laundering case was announced by the Serbian court in September 2023. At that time, he had already served almost a year of imprisonment. Subsequently, both the defense and the prosecution filed appeals against this decision. Their consideration is ongoing.
Naumov is involved in several journalistic investigations into contraband imports and corruption schemes at customs. Even as the head of the Main Directorate of Internal Security of the SSU, he appeared in the investigation of journalists about the acquisition of elite property, which is not comparable to the official income of a civil servant. The media also reported that on the eve of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine - on February 23 - Andrii Naumov went abroad.
In Ukraine, Naumov was charged with two counts of misappropriation, embezzlement of property or possession of it through abuse of official position, abuse of power or official position, and fraud and causing losses to the state for more than 3.2 million hryvnias.
You can read more about the circumstances of Andrii Naumov's arrest in the Censor.NET article "Chasing the boat: how Bakanov's "wallet" went to prison in Serbia and whether there is a Russian trace in it."
