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The ministry will review the requests for the extradition of
Yevgeniy Nikulin, who a U.S. federal grand jury said had hacked
into the U.S.-based social media companies LinkedIn, Dropbox and
Formspring. The requests will then be referred to a Prague
court, a spokeswoman said.
If the court determines both requests are valid, the justice
minister would make the extradition decision, she added.
Czech police detained Nikulin in October in Prague, where he
remains in custody. His arrest was carried out in cooperation
with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
A federal grand jury in Oakland, California, indicted him on
Oct. 21.
LinkedIn Corp has said the arrest was related to a 2012 breach
at the social networking company that might have compromised the
credentials of 100 million users, prompting it to launch a
massive password reset operation.
Russia's foreign ministry has criticized the arrest, saying it
showed Washington was mounting a global manhunt against Russian
citizens.
The U.S. government had accused Russia of a campaign of cyber
attacks against Democratic Party organizations before the Nov. 8
presidential election. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said
a hacking scandal would not be in Russia's interests.
(Reporting by Jason Hovet and Petra Vodstrcilova; Editing by Tom
Heneghan)
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