In response to calls from U.S. lawmakers urging President Joe Biden to secure the release of detained Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan, Nigerian Minister of Information Mohammed Idris has issued a statement.<\/p>\n
Idris affirmed that Gambaryan’s trial has followed due process at all stages. “Prosecutors are confident in their case based on the evidence gathered,” he stated. He also disclosed that the next court hearing is scheduled for June 20, 2024.<\/p>\n
The minister emphasized that Binance would have the opportunity to defend itself in court, describing the charges against the company as involving \u201csevere\u201d financial crimes.<\/p>\n
Contrastingly, U.S. lawmakers have described the charges against Binance\u2019s head of financial crime compliance as \u201cbaseless.\u201d In a letter publicized on June 4, 12 U.S. politicians expressed concerns about Gambaryan being “wrongfully detained” by the Nigerian government. The letter, primarily signed by members of Congress, accused Nigerian authorities of attempting to extort Binance and claimed Gambaryan had been denied meetings with his legal counsel without the presence of armed guards or other Nigerian officials.<\/p>\n
However, the Minister of Information countered these claims, asserting that Binance had received consular access and that all standard diplomatic protocols were followed in accordance with the rule of law.<\/p>\n
The minister further clarified that Gambaryan was considered a flight risk, which led to his bail being denied on May 17. This decision was influenced by the escape of another Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, from Nigerian custody in March. Anjarwalla is currently the subject of an Interpol Red Notice.<\/p>\n
A Nigerian court had previously dismissed Gambaryan\u2019s defense argument that he should not be solely held responsible for Binance\u2019s operations. Attorneys for Nigeria\u2019s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) asserted that constitutional provisions permit the prosecution of company executives.<\/p>\n
Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen, and Anjarwalla were arrested in February on charges of money laundering and tax evasion. Anjarwalla fled illegally to Kenya, while Gambaryan remained in the notorious Kuje Prison.<\/p>\n
In their letter, U.S. lawmakers emphasized that the prison was \u201cdesigned to hold ISIS combatants\u201d and urged President Biden to involve the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs in handling Gambaryan\u2019s case.<\/p>\n
The letter also raised concerns about Gambaryan\u2019s health, noting that he had contracted malaria and that a court order for proper medical care had not been followed.<\/p>\n
As of the time of publication, the White House had not issued an official response.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In response to calls from U.S. lawmakers urging President Joe Biden to secure the release of detained Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan, Nigerian Minister of Information Mohammed Idris has issued a statement. Idris affirmed that Gambaryan’s trial has followed due process at all stages. “Prosecutors are confident in their case based on the evidence gathered,” he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":33902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,182],"tags":[989,988,392,223,59,987],"class_list":["post-33889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-defence-and-security","tag-anjarwalla","tag-biden","tag-binance","tag-efcc","tag-featured","tag-gambaryan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33889"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33904,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33889\/revisions\/33904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}