Halya Coynash: France allows questionable extradition to Ukraine or Russia
A French court in Aix-en-Provence has ignored concerns expressed by international and Ukrainian human rights groups, and ruled that Mukhtar Ablyazov, an opposition politician from Kazakhstan can be extradited to Russia or Ukraine to face fraud charges.
The BBC writes that “he is accused of stealing billions of dollars from the Kazakh BTA Bank, which also operates in Russia and Ukraine. It reports that in November 2013 the English High Court found that the former Kazakh energy and trade minister, who fled Kazakhstan in 2009, had defrauded BTA Bank of $300m (£183m) in investment bonds, and ordered him to pay $400m to BTA.