Unchained

The feds release Igor Belov

By A.C. Thompson

The murky, at times Kafkaesque, saga of Igor Belov, the Russian expatriate profiled in our cover story "From Russia with Blood" (6/8/05), entered a new phase Oct. 25, with the feds releasing Belov from custody after 16 months. He'd been held in a Bakersfield jail, awaiting deportation.

In an interview shortly after his release, Belov said he hoped to "start working and go forward.... I made it through thanks to support from the outside."

Belov was apparently tortured by Russian police in the early 1990s, something that seems to have strongly influenced the Department of Homeland Security's decision to let him stay in the States. Explaining why Homeland Security decided not to deport Belov, department spokesperson Lori Haley cited the "convention against torture," indicating the feds figure he's likely to be seriously abused if returned to Russia.

For those who missed it, here's the backstory: Belov, a former boxer who immigrated to San Francisco in 1997, has been engaged in nonstop legal fisticuffs with US immigration officials for the past six years. The dispute revolves around Belov's activities in Russia, where's he was accused of orchestrating a series of mafia-type hits in the northern city of Petrozavodsk during the 1990s.

According to cops and prosecutors in Petrozavodsk, Belov gunned down two people, tried to kill another, and aided the thugs responsible for a fourth rubout. In a letter sent to the US embassy, Russian officials claimed, "One of the main reasons for Belov's departure to the United States was his attempt to escape" an ongoing investigation into the murders.

Worried by the allegations, US law enforcement and immigration officials had been trying ever since to boot Belov, who ran a security firm while in Russia. To that end, federal prosecutors tried Belov twice for purportedly lying to immigration officials (he walked both times), before handing him over to the immigration service, which has bounced him in and out of jail since 2000.

While there could be merit to the charges against Belov, there's also a bunch of evidence suggesting he's been targeted by a band of remarkably corrupt, mobbed-up Russian law enforcers.

News reports in Russia have linked the prosecutor on his case to the mafia, and even the US government doesn't deny that Belov may have been tortured by Russian cops. There are also numerous clues tying the Petrozavodsk police to the assassination of a wealthy casino owner Belov was guarding. As for Belov, he told us he feared he'd be whacked if he was repatriated to his former land.

Ah, Russia, where the line between cop and criminal is thin and amazingly porous.

At this point, the Department of Homeland Security – which runs the immigration service in the post-9/11 era – has changed its tune, granting Belov temporary permission to live and work in the United States. And his attorney, Rocky Tsai, is petitioning the courts to give his client more permanent status.

Tsai says he was never told why the feds reversed course and set Belov free. In fact, Tsai has been baffled and frustrated by a whole lot of things the government has done, describing Homeland Security's conduct as "alarming" and "arbitrary and capricious."

Still, the lawyer, who seems worried that Homeland Security may decide to grab Belov again, is savoring the moment: "I'm just happy the outcome – right now – is favorable."

E-mail A.C. Thompson at acthompson@hushmail.com.