You're reading: Herald Standard: Kazakh banker’s wife urges France not to send him to Russia

Herald Standard: Kazakh banker’s wife urges France not to send him to Russia

Published March 16, 2016 at 6:57 pm

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev gestures during with his meeting with Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko listens in Astana on Oct. 9.

Photo by president.gov.ua

PARIS (AP) — The wife of a Kazakh banker-turned-dissident accused of embezzling billions urged French authorities to block his pending extradition to Russia.

Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former Kazakh energy minister who founded an opposition party, is accused of stealing billions from a bank he founded, BTA. He was arrested in France more than two years ago and is fighting extradition to Russia, which claims its citizens were defrauded in the collapse of the now-nationalized bank.