SEATTLE (AP) — A Russian man charged with hacking into U.S. businesses testified Friday that he thought he was being kidnapped when three federal agents put him in handcuffs at a Maldives airport last year and led him from the building.
Roman Seleznev, who spoke through an interpreter in federal court, said one of the agents shoved him into a room and forced him onto a couch before telling him he was under arrest. The son of a Russian Parliament member said he asked to see a lawyer and call the Russian embassy, but the agents refused.
They searched his luggage without permission and refused to tell him where he was going, he said. When they covered his restraints with a T-shirt, “it looked very strange to me,” Seleznev said.
“I thought that really they were kidnapping me,” he said.
Three agents with the U.S. Secret Service and State Department told a different story in testimony over the past two days. They said Maldivian police took Seleznev into custody because U.S. authorities had no authority to arrest someone in the island nation in the Indian Ocean.
The agents said they calmly told Seleznev about the indictment before leading him to a chartered airplane that would take him to Guam and then on to Seattle. They said they covered his handcuffs with a T-shirt so they wouldn’t draw attention walking through the airport.
The agents also said that Seleznev never asked for a lawyer or the Russian consulate. The defendant accused them of lying.
Federal prosecutors say Seleznev hacked into the computer systems of American restaurants and other businesses and stole about 2 million credit card numbers that he later sold on a private website. He made millions from his illegal operations and was living an extravagant lifestyle before his arrest, authorities said.
Seleznev’s lawyers have asked the judge to dismiss the 40-count indictment, saying his arrest violated Maldivian law because he was not brought before a local judge. They claim the agents’ actions amounted to “outrageous government misconduct.”
Russian authorities condemned the arrest as an illegal kidnapping. Khalit Aisin, the deputy counsel general for the Russian Federation in Seattle, said he is attending the hearing as an observer.
The agents have testified that the operation received approval from government officials in both countries and Maldivian police assisted them.
Secret Service Special Agent David Iacovetti said on the stand Friday that local police approached Seleznev at the airport and told him that he would be expelled from the country based on an Interpol arrest warrant.
After that, the U.S. agents took over and put him on a chartered plane, Iacovetti said. They read Seleznev his Miranda rights once the plane took off and let him call his father after they landed, he said.
Seleznev testified that Maldivian police never spoke to him. Instead, an agent told him he was under arrest and “he was shaking this paper saying he had this indictment, and I didn’t understand anything,” Seleznev said.
At the same time, he said his girlfriend and her daughter were held in a nearby room, and when she tried to get out, “they restrained her forcibly.”
“They told her she could not leave the room, call anyone or speak with me,” he said.
Seleznev’s lawyer, Angelo Calfo, asked his client if he agreed to get on the plane with the agents.
“I was told I had no choice,” he said.
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