After seven months in detention for espionage in Albania, Svetlana Timofeeva requests Albanian help for political asylum, on the grounds that if she is extradited to Russia, her life will be in danger from persecution there.
Through a long letter signed by lawyer Isuf Shehu, the 34-year-old woman, who is considered a spy by the prosecutor’s office in Elbasan, explains that during 2018 she openly spoke out against Putin, and for this reason Russian justice is looking for her on the charge of illegally obtaining information. .
“The Russian Federation has submitted a request for extradition for an offense of a political nature, so I am wanted for political purposes”, writes Timofeeva further, in the request for asylum submitted to the general directorate of development for migration and asylum as well as the border police in Tirana.
Recalling the European convention, as another argument of persecution, Timofeeva adds the convictions of her ex-husband, whom she considers a supporter of Putin. Political convictions, underlines the 34-year-old arrested in Albania, together with Mikhail Zorin and Fedir Aplatov, were the main cause of the divorce.
Equating the mission of the media with that of blogging, suspected of being a spy in Albania, remembers the conviction on July 6, 2020 of the journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva, who, after a broadcast where she criticized the repressive climate in Russia on the radio, was sentenced by a military court. Timofeeva predicts that she too will be subjected to inhumane and torturous treatment if extradited.
Timofeva, Zorin and Alatov are facing Albanian courts on suspicion of espionage. They were caught red-handed at the Cekin military plant in Gramsh while taking pictures. While in their personal belongings, many other materials of some important points that are known as critical infrastructure were found.
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