WARSAW, April 23 (RAPSI) – The District Court in Gdansk has postponed the hearing of the request for the extradition of Viktor Bogdan, known as the “Amber King” of Russia’s Kaliningrad Region, until May 13, the court’s press secretary, Tomasz Adamski, told RIA Novosti.

Viktor Bogdan is the owner of the Amber Plus company in Yantarny, Kaliningrad Region. Russian authorities suspect him of fraudulently obtaining about 250 million rubles ($7 million) in illegal VAT refunds. In late 2013 and early 2014, the police found 30 metric tons of amber estimated to be worth about 2 billion rubles ($57 million) in two locked rooms in the company’s office.

Previous hearings of Bogdan’s extradition case were held on April 9 and April 22. During the latter, the court heard testimony by defense witnesses. One of Bogdan’s attorneys, Jacek Potulski, told RIA Novosti that they had challenged the relevance of the reasons behind their client’s persecution, which they consider to be politically motivated.

The judge in Gdansk dismissed the attorneys’ motion to release Bogdan.

The Gdansk court is to decide on the compliance of Bogdan’s potential extradition with Polish law. The Amber King can contest its decision. If all Polish courts decide that he can be extradited to Russia, the issue will be forwarded to the Polish Justice Minister, who is to make the final decision in the case. The procedure could take over a year.