SOFIA, Bulgaria -- A Korean national wanted on charges related to the Salt Lake City Olympic bribery scandal on Friday appealed a Bulgarian court verdict to extradite him to the United States.

John Kim faces charges of fraud and document forgery allegedly committed between 1995-99 in New York. He is the son of Kim Un-yong, a South Korean IOC member reprimanded by the International Olympic Committee in 2000 for his involvement in the scandal.

"We filed an appeal, and I expect that the Sofia Court of Appellation will call a hearing in the case within 10 days as of next Monday," Kim's lawyer, Radian Gichev, told The Associated Press.

Sofia City Court Judge Daniela Rosenova last week complied with a U.S. request to extradite Kim and rejected the suspect's request to be released from custody.

Kim's lawyers have said that a 1924 legal assistance accord with the United States, on which Rosenova based the decision, was annulled by a 1951 Bulgarian law which revoked all previous legislation. They said also that offenses Kim was charged with in the United States were not crimes in Bulgaria.

Kim, who has proclaimed his innocence, was arrested on an Interpol warrant in May by Bulgarian police as he arrived from Paris at the invitation of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee.