- Brazda had been placed on the Interpol’s Red Notice for alleged fraud in his country before he ran away in 2006.
- He revealed that he had been living in Boma Ngombe village, in Moshi, Tanzania.
Image: COURTESY
Kenyan authorities at the weekend deported a Czech fugitive who has been on a wanted list for 15 years over fraud.
Police and immigration officials said Miroslav Brazda was deported from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after his arrest almost a month ago and was received at the Prague airport by local police.
He was arrested at the Loitoktok border point as he tried to cross from Tanzania to Kenya without requisite documents.
Brazda had been placed on Interpol’s Red Notice for alleged fraud in his country before he ran away in 2006. It is not clear how much was involved.
A Red Notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.
It contains information to identify the wanted person, such as their name, date of birth, nationality, hair and eye colour, photographs and fingerprints if available and related to the crime they are wanted for, which can typically be murder, rape, child abuse or armed robbery.
Image: COURTESY
Red Notices are published by Interpol at the request of a member country but it is not an international arrest warrant.
According to police and immigration officials, he had also tried to renew his expired passport while in Tanzania.
When he was stopped at the Kenyan border on February 16, Brazda, 61 revealed that he had been living in Boma Ngombe village, in Moshi, Tanzania.
Collaborative efforts between the Immigration Department and police officers from the Transnational Organized Crime Unit (TOCU) revealed the subject’s criminal portfolio, leading to his detention.
Officers from the Czech Republic confirmed the details of Brazda’s criminality and a joint operation was planned to escort Brazda back home to serve a pending jail term.
Brazda's deportation comes barely a week after the removal of Isaac Sturgeon, an American sought by the FBI for storming the U.S capitol in January 2020.
“Both operations serve to prove that while the arc of the moral universe is long, it always bends towards justice,” said an official handling the cases.
Sturgeon, 32, flew all the way to Kenya after allegedly participating in the white supremacist mob attack.
But he was deported by Kenyan immigration and police on March 5 after they were informed he was in Nairobi.
Sturgeon is accused of picking up a metal barricade at the U.S. Capitol and using it to shove back police officers who were guarding the building.
He then tried to crawl under barriers to get into the Capitol, according to federal investigators.
After that fun flirtation with domestic terrorism, Sturgeon hopped on a plane to Kenya on January 24, with plans to stay there until April.
Unfortunately for him, Kenyan authorities kicked him out last Friday following a tip-off.
Sturgeon was deported from Nairobi on March 5 and promptly arrested by the FBI, who greeted him at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City the following day.
Sturgeon, who is a business owner from Montana, is now facing charges of obstruction of justice, civil disorder, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds and assaulting or resisting officers.
Prosecutors are expected to ask a federal judge to detain him without bond pending trial.
According to the FBI, a warrant to arrest Sturgeon was issued on February 5 on the planned charges.
On January 16, 2021, the FBI posted to its website a photograph of Sturgeon, among others, seeking the public’s assistance in identifying him.
Sturgeon had travelled to Kenya on January 24 and later purchased a return ticket to the US departing on April 5.
But after the Kenyan authorities were informed of his presence in Nairobi, police went to his hotel room and picked him before he was deported.
It is not clear what his mission was in Nairobi but he told police he was on holiday. According to the Post, a US magistrate ordered Sturgeon released to Montana with location monitoring on a $250,000 bond, secured by a $90,000 plot of land he owns and commitments by his parents and family friends.