Convicted Russian arms trafficker Victor Bout Thursday reiterated his hopes for extradition to his native Russia -- a goal shared by the Russian government. Russia has been a vocal proponent of Bout’s extradition since his arrest in Thailand 2008. Bout was extradited to the United States in 2010 and went on trial in October. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison by the US District Court in New York on April 5, for conspiracy to kill American citizens and conspiracy to aid a terrorist organization.

During a televised press conference organized on Thursday by the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI), Bout said he believes that "if Russia gets to the bottom of what happened” and takes a firm stance on his case, he will be able to return to Russia soon. He urged the State Duma to file a lawsuit on his behalf at an international court, against Thailand for extraditing him to the US, and against the US for the “staged trial” against him.

One of Europe’s most wanted criminals, Ndricim Sadushi, was caught in London on Tuesday, after 15 years on the run. The Metropolitan Police Extradition Unit arrested the Albanian national in front of his home in the Southgate neighborhood. He will stay in custody pending extradition to Albania, the Westminster Magistrates' Court ruled. 

According to the Interpol, Sadushi is wanted for murder, assault, hooliganism, crimes related to weapons and explosives, kidnapping, organized and transnational crime, and drug trafficking.

Albanian authorities sentenced him in absentia in 2006 to life in prison for three murders and an attempted murder in 1997. He was linked to the notorious Kateshi gang of robbers from Elbasan in central Albania that terrorized the city in the late 1990s.

Spain has begun efforts to extradite Luka Bojovic, Vladimir Milisavljevic and Sinisa Petric to Serbia, Serbian Minister of Justice Snezana Malovic told reporters after a Tuesday meeting with authorities in Madrid. The three internationally sought Serbians fugitives were arrested in Valencia, in February.

 Malovic, who met with her Spanish counterpart Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, said that Bojovic and his associates will be extradited within a year, Radio Television Serbia reported. 

Serbia and Spain will also form a joint investigative team to exchange information on organized crime groups and their prosecution. The team will focus on crime groups such as those of Luka Bojovic and Darko Saric, as well as the fugitive Slobodan Radulovic, who is wanted in Serbia for fraud.

Police have arrested 23 members so far of an organized crime ring in Macedonia including a number of former mayors, relatives of politicians, and members of the country’s ruling party. The operation, codenamed “Detonator,” has catalyzed a political debate about corruption and criminal responsibility of the government. The suspects are accused of numerous crimes revolving around an illegal gambling operation.

300 police officers and revenue inspectors conducted a raid across several southeast Macedonian cities on April 1, the culmination of months of investigation.

Thirteen police chiefs in towns across southeast Macedonia were subsequently fired for failing to effectively deal with the organized crime group that has been terrorizing this part of Macedonia.

Serbian and Spanish authorities will meet in Madrid next week to discuss the extradition of Luka Bojovic and two other Serbian gangsters arrested in Spain in February, a Serbian Justice Ministry official said Sunday. 

Bojovic is a prominent figure in the Zemun organized crime group based near the Serbian capital of Belgrade, and his associates Vladimir Milisavljevic and Sinisa Petric, are wanted for numerous crimes committed in several European countries. Both countries want to try the men for crimes committed in their countries.

Ukrainian prosecutors have added to the judicial pressure against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko by raising allegations that she was involved in the 1996 murder of the Ukrainian businessman and politician Yevhen Shcherban. The prosecution has not filed formal charges yet, but the court awarded Tymoshenko the status of a witness in this case on Thursday.

Yevhen Shcherban, a member of the Ukrainian elite and a Parliamentary representative for the Liberal Party of Ukraine, was murdered with his wife at the Donetsk Airport in Ukraine in November 1996.

The Russian arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death” was sentenced to 25 years in prison, New York Circuit Court Judge Shira Scheindlin announced at a hearing Thursday.  His sentence, the mandatory minimum, falls far short of the lifetime sentence prosecutors asked for.

Scheindlin told the court that the sentence was sufficient because the crimes in the trial originated in a sting by US Drug Enforcement agents, who posed as leaders of a Colombian terrorist organization seeking weapons from Bout.

The Special Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime in Serbia, on Wednesday issued 28 indictments for embezzlement of US$11 million from the Kolubara coal mine in Lazarevac, near the capital of Belgrade. Among the indicted are the former director of Kolubara Dragan Tomic, 12 former Kolubara executives, and 16 owners of private businesses.

The defendants, arrested in October, were indicted for abuse of power for personal material gain between June 2006 and December 2007. They allegedly paid for unnecessary services and equipment provided by private companies, without following public procurement procedure and overcharging the Kolubara mine for the number of work hours provided by the companies.

United Nations members have drafted a treaty to counteract the global cigarette smuggling trade, which costs up to US$50 billion annually in lost tax revenue.

The draft treaty is the result of four years of negotiation, according to UN officials, and 136 member countries have reached consensus on the document.  Notable exceptions include the United States and Indonesia.

A Moscow judge rejected a lawsuit from the mother of a whistleblower who died in Russian police custody to throw out the posthumous case against him.

On Tuesday, Judge Yulia Bobrova of Ostankinsky District Court of Moscow, rejected a lawsuit brought by the mother of Sergei Magnitsky, a former lawyer for Hermitage Capital Management who is being prosecuted for tax fraud following his death two years ago in police custody.