14 DAY TRIAL // On Thursday, the Latvian Prosecutor’s Office announced that Deniss Calovskis, the man accused of being involved in the development of the Gozi virus, was released from jail.
Calovskis was charged in the United States back in January 2013, along with two other individuals allegedly responsible for the creation and distribution of the malware.
The US asked Latvian authorities to extradite him. The extradition was approved by officials despite numerous protests. However, the European Court of Human Rights prevented Latvia from handing him over to the US.
Calovskis has always maintained his innocence and now he has been released.
Latvia's Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevic was among those who opposed the extradition. He argued that the 60-year prison term the man faced in the United States was disproportionate with the crime he allegedly committed.
Nikita Kuzmin, a Russian national suspected of creating Gozi, was arrested in November 2010 and pleaded guilty before a US judge. The third man, a Romanian named Mihai Ionut Paunescu, was arrested in Romania in December 2012. He is also said to be fighting extradition.