A French court has ruled that Kazakh tycoon and dissident Mukhtar Ablyazov should be extradited to Russia or Ukraine to face fraud charges. He is accused of stealing billions of dollars from the Kazakh BTA Bank, which also operates in Russia and Ukraine.
The court said Russia should take priority. He was arrested on the French Riviera last July. He denies the allegations. His children say his life would be in danger if he were to be transferred to Kazakhstan. His lawyers say he will appeal against the ruling.
BTA welcomed the ruling in a statement quoted by Reuters, saying that the decision would help recover billions of euros allegedly misappropriated by Ablyazov.
The US-based organisation Human Rights Watch says that if returned to Kazakhstan, Ablyazov would be "at serious risk of ill-treatment and would face a flagrant denial of his fair trial rights".
Ablyazov is a former Kazakh energy and trade minister, who fled the country in 2009. In 2011, he was granted political asylum in the UK, but disappeared after being sentenced to jail for contempt of court, only to reappear in France.
Ablyazov, 50, says the allegations against him are politically motivated and designed to eliminate him as a rival to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Human rights campaigners have accused President Nazarbayev of silencing independent media and persecuting political opponents, as well as using the police and courts to keep a tight grip on power.