MOSCOW, September 12 (RAPSI) - The Land Court of Vienna on Tuesday granted a request of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office to extradite Aslan Gagiyev, an alleged leader of the organized-crime syndicate, RIA Novosti reported.
The hearing was held behind closed doors.

Gagiyev, who was arrested in Austria in January 2015, faces life sentence in Russia.

On March 3, 2016, the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters released Gagiyev after paying bail of 100,000 euros already returned to Gagiyev since then. Austrian courts reviewed the request for Gagiyev’s extradition three times and for the last time Austrian authorities asked Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office for additional guarantees for Gagiyev’s prosecution to be conducted in accordance with the law.

Bulgarian authorities have also requested Gagiyev’s extradition in document forgery case but prosecution against the defendant has been stopped.

Russian investigators claim that Georgian-born Aslan Gagiyev’s gang has been operating since 2004 and includes over 50 members. Members of the gang committed more than 60 counts of murder in Moscow, Moscow Region and North Ossetia including murders of officials, law enforcement officers and businessmen. Some members of the gang have already been convicted and are serving long prison terms.