(9 Dec 2016) A top court in France is refusing to hand a Kazakh banker-turned-dissident, charged with embezzling billions tenge, over to Russia.
Mukhtar Ablyazov's lawyers had asked France's Council of State to block his extradition, fearing Russia would quickly send him back to Kazakhstan.
The Council of State said on Friday that it considered the extradition request to be "politically motivated."
The court noted that the Kazakh and Russian authorities had "repeatedly" held consultations on Ablyazov's case.
Ablyazov, a former Kazakh energy minister who founded an opposition party, is charged with stealing billions of tenge from a bank he founded, BTA.
He was arrested in France in 2013.
Russia claims its citizens were defrauded in the collapse of the now-nationalized bank.
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