Constitutional Court turns down complaint by Nikulin

The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic has turned down a third complaint by alleged Russian hacker Yevgeniy Nikulin that he was wrongly refused asylum in the Czech Republic and extradited to the United States to face charges.

The verdict upheld earlier rulings by lower-instance courts which said Nikulin did not have the right to asylum in the Czech Republic on humanitarian grounds.

Nikulin was arrested in Prague in 2016 with both Russian and US authorities calling for him to be handed over.

In March of this year he was extradited to the US where he is suspected of hacking computers at Silicon Valley firms including LinkedIn and Dropbox. The decision sparked protests from Russia and was criticized by President Miloš Zeman.