Venice, Italy ? In a move that could add weeks of legal wrangling to an already complex case, a reputed Russian mobster charged with trying to fix two Olympic figure skating events will fight extradition to the United States.

Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov said “no” Tuesday when asked at a closed hearing in Santa Maria Maggiore prison if he would consent to extradition, according to Judge Giannicolo Rodighiero.

“The judge explained the conditions of the New York court request to Mr. Tokhtakhounov,” defense lawyer Luca Saldarelli said. “Then the judge asked him if he would consent to the extradition process and he said: ‘No, I want to have the complete procedure under the Italian law.”‘

By refusing voluntary extradition, Tokhtakhounov is guaranteed a lengthy series of legal procedures.

“He said he’s absolutely not guilty of having anything to do with the Olympics,” Saldarelli said.

Saldarelli said he asked the court to release Tokhtakhounov to house arrest, and the judge promised a ruling within a few days.

The United States must file a request for extradition within 40 days of Tokhtakhounov’s July 31 arrest. No U.S. demand had arrived by Tuesday, Rodighiero said.

Under Italian law, within a few days of being arrested, a suspect must appear before a judge, who then decides whether to validate the charges on the warrant. The judge at Tuesday’s hearing upheld Italian charges of criminal association, fraud and corruption.

Tokhtakhounov also was arrested on a U.S. criminal complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court, that accused him of fixing the results of the pairs and ice dancing competitions at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

The Italian police have released excerpts of wiretapped conversations they say show Tokhtakhounov was involved in fixing the events. They say he might have contacted as many as six judges to help secure a gold medal for the Russians in the pairs competition in exchange for a victory by the French ice dancing team. Both teams won.

Rodighiero, assigned to Venice’s criminal court, was ferried back and forth from the canal-side prison by motorboat.

When the defense lawyer showed up for the hearing, he entered the prison with a stack of Russian newspaper clippings under his arm. He asked prison authorities if he could give the clips to Tokhtakhounov and was granted permission.

Tokhtakhounov has been living in a Tuscan seaside villa for about two years.

“He worked in international affairs,” Saldarelli said. “That was a few years ago, though. Now he’s just a rich man, like many American people. And like many Russians now, too.”

Last week, Italian police officials described Tokhtakhounov as a high-ranking member of a Moscow-based crime group known as the Sun Brigade.

Since his arrest, Russia’s top two tennis players, Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov, have said they know Tokhtakhounov.

In France on Monday, Olympic ice dance champion Marina Anissina acknowledged she had talked “from time to time” with Tokhtakhounov. She and partner Gwendal Peirzerat won the ice dancing gold medal.

Anissina, who competes for France but is of Russian origin, insisted that knowing Tokhtakhounov had nothing to do with her victory in Salt Lake City.

The French couple, along with the Russian pairs champions, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, spoke at a news conference to defend themselves against accusations contained in the U.S. criminal complaint.

“I think all the people involved in the Olympic affair have said they are innocent,” Tokhtakhounov’s lawyer said Tuesday. “My client said he doesn’t know anything about this, so I must believe my client.”

The president of the Russian Figure Skating Federation said he never had contact with the Uzbek-born Tokhtakhounov.

The official, Valentin Piseyev, said in a radio interview he and the other two officials from Russia’s skating body who were at the Salt Lake City games had never even seen him.

Piseyev claimed the scandal was sparked by those possibly hoping to change the results of the competition again. “I think those who ‘did’ that second gold medal are interested in this,” he told the radio station.