France approves extradition of Kazakh tycoon
Print Edition
A French court yesterday approved the extradition of exiled Kazakh oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, wanted on embezzlement charges by Russia and Ukraine.
Ablyazov, accused of embezzling up to US$6 billion from his former bank BTA, should be extradited from France to Ukraine or Russia, the court ruled.
Ablyazov, 50, who had been in hiding since being sentenced to prison for contempt of court by an English judge 18 months ago, was arrested near the Riviera resort of Cannes last July and has been in custody since.
Kazakhstan, which wants to put him on trial, has no extradition treaty with France. However, both Ukraine and Russia have requested his extradition.
The court said it preferred he be extradited to Russia on the grounds that the alleged financial losses in the case were much larger there than in Ukraine.
Ablyazov’s wife Alma Shalabayeva said after the court’s ruling that the extradition amounts to a death sentence to her husband.
“If he is extradited, he will never see me and our four children,” she said in a statement.
His lawyer Olivier Quesneau said he would appeal against the decision to halt the extradition process for about a year.
Ablyazov is accused of having embezzled the money from BTA, the Kazakh bank he once controlled but which was seized by Kazakh authorities and declared insolvent in 2009.
Prosecutors said Ablyazov made loans to front companies which he controlled and which were never paid back.
Russia and Kazakhstan are close political, military and economic partners. Ablyazov’s supporters have voiced concerns that Russia could hand him over to Kazakhstan after his extradition by France.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, a 73-year-old former steelworker, has ruled Central Asia’s largest economy for more than two decades. He has overseen market reforms and massive foreign investment in his oil-rich nation of 17 million.
The Kazakh Foreign Ministry and president’s office both declined to comment on the ruling and the prosecutor-general’s office was not immediately available for comment.
BTA welcomed the ruling in a statement, saying that the decision would help recover billions of euros it accused Ablyasov of misappropriating.
Ablyazov, a former minister, said during the hearing the allegations against him were fabricated and designed to eliminate him as an opponent to Nazarbayev.
Ablyazov was granted political asylum by Britain after he moved there in 2009, but he fled London last year after being sentenced to 22 months in prison for contempt of court.
Italy welcomed back his wife last month after she bad been expelled from the country, where she has been living.
The case created an uproar in Italy, where opposition politicians and the press accused the government of disregarding normal judicial and diplomatic procedures to please Kazakhstan.
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