Constitutional Law
Russian Lawyer Seeks Political Asylum Over Client Wiretapping Case
Posted Feb 6, 2008, 01:13 pm CDT
By Martha Neil
A Russian lawyer who is a well-known critic of the government there is seeking political asylum in the U.S. because of his legal work.
Boris Kuznetsov, 64, claims he is being criminally prosecuted in his home country because of his efforts to obtain a court ruling that his client, a former senator accused of bribery, was illegally wiretapped by state security services, reports the Moscow Times. The government contends that Kuznetsov revealed state secrets in a court filing in the wiretapping case.
"Many people are saying I applied for asylum due to bad health or money problems. If that's true, I would have gone to a doctor or a bank. The fact is that the FSB are chasing me for doing my professional duty," he tells the publication, referring to a Russian security agency known as the Federal Security Service.
Kuznetsov is now living in New Jersey, where he is writing a book about the FSB, Reuters reports.
As discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, Kuznetsov fled Russia last year to avoid prosecution in the state secrets case.
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