Police have arrested a suspected Russian hacker on the resort island of Phuket who was wanted by the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) on allegations that he was behind cyberattacks on US and European government agencies, officials said.
The 35-year-old, who entered Thailand on Oct 30 at Phuket Airport, was taken into custody earlier this month at his hotel and is now being held pending possible extradition, Thai police said.
The suspect’s name was not released, but the Russian state-run news agency Russia Today identified him as Denis Obrezko, a native of Stavropol.
It reported that his relatives confirmed the Nov 6 arrest and were planning to fight his extradition to the United States.
In an e-mail Thursday, the US Department of Justice refused to comment on the possible extradition or give other details. The US State Department and American officials in Thailand also refused to comment.
The Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russian embassy in Thailand also did not respond to requests for comment, but Russia’s consul general in Phuket, Yegor Ivanov, told Russian state news agency Tass that the consulate had “received notification of the arrest of a Russian citizen on charges of committing an information technology crime”.
“He was arrested on Nov 6 and transferred to Bangkok that same day,” Ivanov said, without providing further details.
Ilya Ilyin, head of the consular section of the Russian embassy in Thailand, told Tass that Russian diplomats had visited the suspect in prison in Bangkok.
In the raid on his hotel, police seized laptop computers, mobile phones, and digital wallets, the police statement said, adding that FBI officials were on hand for the arrest.
Several media outlets reported that Aleksey Lukashev, a different 35-year-old Russian hacking suspect wanted by the FBI who has ties to Russian military intelligence, had been arrested in Phuket the following day.
Thai police said, however, there had only been one arrest and the US Department of Justice told the AP that Lukashev “remains a wanted fugitive”.
The formal request for the Obrezko’s extradition has been made but it was not clear how long the process would take. — AP
