The court in Kazakhstan did not extradite the former editor-in-chief of the magazine “Hacker” to the USA

A court in Kazakhstan rejected the US request for the extradition of Nikita Kislitsyn, the top manager of the FACCT cybersecurity company, a cybersecurity software developer and successor to Group-IB, whose founder Ilya Sachkov was recently convicted in Russia of treason. Artyom Oganov, consul-adviser of the Russian consulate in Almaty, told TASS about this. There are no comments from the authorities of Kazakhstan yet.

38-year-old Kyslytsyn was placed under extradition arrest at the request of Russia. There he was arrested in absentia on a case of illegal access to information. According to the legislation of Kazakhstan, as “Mediazona” writes, detention cannot exceed an hour. When the court on extradition to Russia will be held – it is not reported.

Kislytsyn, the former editor-in-chief of Hacker magazine, was detained in Kazakhstan at the request of the United States on June 22. The FACCT company then reported that the authorities of Kazakhstan are studying grounds for extradition to the United States. The company clarified that the claims against Kyslytsyn are related to events 10 years ago, when he had not yet worked in the company.

The Consulate General of Russia in Alma-Ata asked Kazakhstan to refrain from the accelerated extradition of Kislitsyn to Washington. A week after his detention in Kazakhstan, Russian investigators accused Kyslytsyn of hacking, and the court arrested him in absentia. As “Mediazona” notes, Russian law enforcement agencies regularly initiate criminal cases against Russians who have already been detained abroad at the request of third countries, for example, the USA, and then require the extradition of detainees – already to Russia.

In 2014, the US Ministry of Justice accused Nikita Kyslytsyn of conspiring to sell data stolen by his accomplice from the Formspring social network in 2012. The charges became public in 2020.

Kyslytsyn was involved in the case of Russian hacker Evgeny Nikulin, who was detained in Prague in 2016 and extradited to the United States. The American court sentenced Nikulin to seven years in prison on charges of cybercrime.

The case against Kyslytsyn did not reach the trial at that time. He cooperated with the FBI, testified against Russian hackers. According to the American investigators, they could cooperate with the Russian special services.

• In 2006–2012, Kyslytsyn headed the magazine Hacker, devoted to information security. In January 2013, he got a job at Group-IB, a cybersecurity company founded by Ilya Sachkov.
• Last week, Sachkov himself was sentenced to 14 years in prison for treason. He was arrested at the end of September 2021. The details of his case are classified. Sachkov did not plead guilty to treason.