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U.S. Judge Rules Konanykhin Can Stay, For Now

A federal judge ruled late Monday that the U.S. government wrongfully arrested and attempted to deport to Russia Alexander Konanykhin, a former business associate of jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Judge T.S. Ellis' ruling means U.S. Homeland Security authorities cannot send Konanykhin to Russia, where he is wanted on embezzlement charges, until his appeal against a recent decision to overturn his political asylum is heard.

"This decision will allow the Konanykhins to stay in the U.S. pending the outcome of their immigration appeals," Konanykhin's lawyer J.P. Szymkowicz said by telephone from Washington. "The United States is where they want to be."

But the Homeland Security Department, into which the Immigration and Naturalization Service has been subsumed, is likely to appeal Monday's ruling, meaning Konanykhin would remain in U.S. custody, Szymkowicz said.

Ellis has scheduled another hearing for Wednesday. If the government appeals, Ellis could rule to release Konanykhin under electronic monitoring, allowing officials to keep tabs on his movements, Szymkowicz said.

"The INS will argue that he's still in their custody," he said. "But what good is this victory if he is still kept in jail? ... This could go on for years."

Konanykhin and his wife, Yelena Gracheva, were arrested by Homeland Security officials on Dec. 18 at the U.S.-Canadian border, four weeks after a U.S. Immigration appeals board overturned their asylum status in the United States. The following day Ellis ruled to stay their deportation just minutes before they were to be put on a plane back to Moscow.

On Monday, Ellis ruled that the arrest and deportation attempt was in breach of a 1997 agreement that allowed Konanykhin to stay in the United States pending final resolution of his immigration status.

During the hearings, which began almost two weeks ago, Ellis frequently questioned why the U.S. government appeared to be in a rush to send Konanykhin back to Russia before he was able to appeal the November reversal of his asylum status.

He accused the U.S. government of entering into a special pact with Moscow to return him to Russia.

Monday's ruling comes as the latest twist in an almost decade-long conflict over Konanykhin's immigration status in the United States, where he arrived in 1992 to run Khodorkovsky's banking operations there. After Russian law enforcement officers charged him in 1994 with embezzling $8.1 million from the All Russian Exchange Bank, he was jailed for 13 months on immigration fraud charges, but was later granted political asylum in 1999.

A month after Khodorkovsky was arrested in Moscow, U.S. officials issued a sudden ruling to overturn Konanykhin's asylum status and deport him to Russia. Gracheva was given 30 days to voluntarily leave the country.

Two other cases to appeal that ruling are pending in U.S. courts.

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