SPAIN: RUSSIAN MEDIA MAGNATE VLADIMIR GUSINSKY RELEASED FROM SPANISH JAIL AFFTER HIS LAWYERS POST BAIL

Record ID: 648181

  • Title: SPAIN: RUSSIAN MEDIA MAGNATE VLADIMIR GUSINSKY RELEASED FROM SPANISH JAIL AFFTER HIS LAWYERS POST BAIL
  • Date: 23rd December 2000
  • Summary: (SOTO DEL REAL, SPAIN - DEC 22, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. SLV PRISON WHERE GUSINSKY WAS HELD; SCU SPANISH FLAG FLYING ABOVE PRISON; SLV PRISON GATES (4 SHOTS) 0.20 2. SLV CAR WITH GUSINSKY AND HIS LAWYER (2 SHOTS) 0.28 3. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DOMINGO PLAZAS , GUSINSKY'S LAWYER, SAYING: "He's doing much better now that he's out of jail" 0.40 4. SLV POLICE OFFICERS OUTSIDE PRISON; CAR WITH GUSINSKI AND LAWYER LEAVING (5 SHOTS) 1.24 (MADRID, SPAIN - FILE) (REUTERS) 5. LAS TILT DOWN SLV EXTERIOR OF SPANISH HIGH COURT; SCU SPANISH FLAG FLYING ABOVE COURT HOUSE (2 SHOTS) 1.36 6. MV JUDGE BALTASAR GARZON ENTERING COURT 1.49 7. MV GROUP OF SPANISH POLICE TALKING OUTSIDE COURTHOUSE 1.53 8. MV DOORS OPEN GARZON LEAVING COURT 2.23 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 7th January 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SOTO DEL REAL AND MADRID, SPAIN
  • Country: Spain
  • Reuters ID: LVAEUHNY9SLT9NYRD0E4LD5VPKL8
  • Story Text: Russian media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky was released
    from a Spanish jail on Friday after his lawyers posted bail of
    $5.55 million in a case that has focused international
    attention on press freedom in Russia.

    Gusinsky, wanted in Russia on fraud charges, will be
    confined to his luxury resort in the south of Spain under
    police guard pending extradition proceedings, according to
    conditions set by a Spanish judge earlier on Friday.

    Gusinsky's case has been closely watched by the U.S. State
    Department and international Jewish groups as a test of
    whether independent media will be tolerated by the Russian
    government headed by President Vladimir Putin.

    "He's doing much better now that he's out of jail,"
    defence laywer Domingo Plazas told Reuters as he and his
    client were taken from the Soto del Real prison just north of
    Madrid in a Civil Guard vehicle. A second police car led them.

    Gusinsky, founder of Russia's only nationwide independent
    media group, was arrested at his Spanish home 10 days ago by
    police acting on an international warrant requested by Russia.

    The extradition battle could take a year or more.

    The businessman, who is also head of Russia's Jewish
    Congress, won the latest legal battle on the first day of
    Hanukkah when Judge Baltasar Garzon ruled that he be freed on
    one billion pesetas bail and other conditions.

    Garzon, known internationally for his unsuccessful effort
    to try former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in Spain,
    confiscated Gusinsky's passport, banned him from leaving the
    country and told him he could leave his beach resort home only
    with court permission and a police escort.

    Garzon noted in the bail order that Gusinsky had dual
    Russian and Israeli nationality.

    "He easily has the potential to evade justice, due both to
    his economic and operational resources," the document said.

    The prosecutor in the case said he was appealing against
    Garzon's decision because of the risk that Gusinsky could
    flee.

    A spokesman for Russian prosecutors in the case said: "I
    don't think Mr Gusinsky will take such a risky step. And if he
    does, he will be hunted by both sides -- Russia and Spain."
    "We do not mind whether the conditions of Mr Gusinsky's
    detention are changed," the spokesman, Leonid Troshin, told
    the Russian news agency Interfax. "The main thing is that he
    returns to face Russian justice."
    Russian prosecutors have accused Gusinsky of concealing
    assets to avoid paying debts.

    His lawyers have denied the charges lodged against him,
    calling them a crude bid by the Kremlin to silence its critics
    since Putin was elected in March.

    Gusinsky's Media-Most group, and in particular the NTV
    television chain, played a groundbreaking role in Russian
    journalism in the 1990s, especially during the 1994-96 first
    Chechen War, making its name with daring and often sharply
    critical frontline reporting.

    His media also have refused to toe the Kremlin line,
    refusing to attack Putin's opponents as the state-controlled
    media have done.


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