A court in Georgia has allowed the extradition to Russia of assistant to ex-governor Furgal

Author, Correspondents Department

Place of work, BBC Russian Service

Published 5 hours ago

Reading time: 4 min

A court in Georgia has allowed the extradition to Russia of Mikhail Timofeev, an assistant and ally of the ex-governor of the Khabarovsk Territory Sergei Furgal, a BBC correspondent reports from the courtroom. Timofeev is accused of criminal offenses in Russia, but international human rights organizations consider his case to be politically motivated.

Timofeev was detained in Georgia on January 23, 2026. According to his lawyer Rusudan Mchedlishvili, the basis was a letter from the Russian bureau of Interpol, although the international organization itself excluded Timofeev from its search base back in 2025, recognizing the arguments of the Russian side as insufficiently motivated.

In Russia, Timofeev is accused of complicity in the murder of businessman Evgeny Zori in 2004 - one of the crimes for which Furgal was convicted. The defense and a number of international human rights organizations believe that Timofeev is being persecuted for political reasons.

“The defense is shocked by the decision, which ignores the fundamental norms of Georgian legislation on extradition and the international act on political and civil rights. We will appeal this decision to the Supreme Court of Georgia,” Timofeev’s representatives told the BBC.

Human rights project “Support for political prisoners. Memorial (included by the Russian authorities in the register of “foreign agents”) recognized Furgal and three other people convicted in this case - Andrei Karepov, Marat Kadyrov and Andrei Paley - as political prisoners.

Human rights activists came to the conclusion that the case is related to the political activities of the former governor, contains signs of falsification of evidence and was accompanied by violations of the right to a fair trial.

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia, Mariana Katsarova, also issued an opinion on Timofeev’s case, recognizing the persecution of the Russian as politically motivated.

However, Temur Tsindeliani, a representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Georgia (he works in the department of international cooperation) insists that the decision was made legally and in compliance with all international standards.

“The fact that a particular person is an assistant to a politician or official does not a priori mean that he carries out political activities,” he noted.

“The request for his temporary arrest for the purpose of extradition was received through Interpol channels. At the time of receiving this request through the Interpol channel, the red circular issued in relation to this person was valid,” said prosecutor Tsindeliani.

He added that the Georgian Prosecutor General's Office has received “detailed guarantees” that in the event of extradition, Timofeev will be provided with proper medical care.

How Timofeev got to Georgia

Timofeev arrived in Georgia in March 2024 and requested asylum, claiming political persecution in Russia.