MOSCOW, January 13 (RIA Novosti) – Fugitive Russian property tycoon Sergei Polonsky has been freed after Cambodia denied a Russian request for his extradition, RAPSI legal news service cited his lawyer as saying Monday.
Polonsky was released by a Cambodian court from a high security prison where he had been held since his detention in November ahead of an expected transfer to Russia, his lawyer Alexander Karabanov said.
The eccentric former owner of Mirax Group was arrested in absentia by a Moscow court on embezzlement charges last year, and was put on an international wanted list by Russia.
A source at the Cambodian Prosecutor General's Office told RIA Novosti on Monday that Russia’s extradition request had been rejected because Polonsky still faces kidnapping charges in the South East Asian country relating to an incident a year ago on board a boat carrying a group of Russians celebrating New Year.
It was reported at the weekend that Cambodian prosecutors had closed that case against Polonsky, once among Russia’s richest men.
Polonsky spent three months in jail in Cambodia last year on the kidnapping charges. After receiving bail he fled to Israel, where he sought citizenship in a bid to shield himself from extradition to Russia.
He subsequently returned to Cambodia, however, where he was arrested in November for a second time and jailed in the capital Phnom Penh.
Russian investigators allege that Polonsky was involved in a $175 million fraud scheme in an upscale Moscow residential project, in which over 80 people lost money.
No comments :
Post a Comment