AIX-EN-PROVENCE PROSECUTOR ADMITS ERRORS IN ABLYAZOV EXTRADITION DECISIONS
ASKS FOR NEW HEARING IN LOCAL COURT TO CORRECT ERRORS,
EVEN THOUGH CASE NOW AT CASSATION COURT IN PARIS
DEFENSE BLASTS PROSECUTOR FOR ATTEMPT TO PREVENT WIN AT CASSATION COURT;
SAYS PROSECUTOR SERVING CORRUPT REGIMES OF KAZAKHSTAN, RUSSIA AND UKRAINE; DENOUNCES AIX-EN-PROVENCE COURT’S NONCHALANCE ABOUT CERTITUDE OF
UNFAIR TRIAL AND TORTURE IF ABLYAZOV EXTRADITED
Paris, February 27, 2014 — Aix-en-Provence prosecutor Solange Legras has admitted that judicial errors undermine the twin court decisions of January 9, 2014 that approved the extradition of Kazakh political opponent and former BTA Bank owner and chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov. An Aix-en-Provence court had responded favorably to extradition requests from Russia and Ukraine, giving priority to the Russian request. Even though Ablyazov’s case is now at the Cassation Court in Paris, Legras has asked that a new hearing be held on February 27, 2014 at the court in Aix-en-Provence, so that the judicial errors can be corrected.
Ablyazov’s defense asserted that the Aix-en-Provence court should reject the prosecutor’s request to amend the decisions; if not, the judges will appear to be acting collusively with the prosecutor to correct the flaws in the documents to ensure their decisions to extradite Ablyazov withstand the scrutiny of the Cassation Court.
Learning of this latest twist in his case, Ablyazov declared: “The Aix-en-Provence prosecutor’s tardy move to correct the errors of the local court is an attempt to prevent the Cassation Court in Paris from quashing the decisions against me.”
Ablyazov further noted: “I am amazed that the prosecutor and the court in Aix-en-Provence are so willing to believe allegations coming from regimes that put bullets in the backs of protesters and illegally seize private businesses. I am even more amazed that whatever they think of the allegations against me, the prosecutor and the court in Aix-en-Provence claimed that I would have a fair trial in Russia or Ukraine, and would not risk being tortured or killed if extradited.”
The flaws that the prosecutor wants to correct involve changes in the members of the three-judge panels in Aix-en-Provence that participated in the extradition hearing and that delivered the decisions on the politically sensitive case. The court is suspiciously silent on which judges actually deliberated on each of the two decisions. Under French law the judges who participated in a hearing must be the ones who deliberate on a decision. The prosecutor has asked the court to reconvene and has suggested specific wording to amend both decisions to correct those flaws in the decisions.
Ablyazov’s defense strenuously objects to the prosecutor’s attempt to short-circuit a possible quashing of the extradition decisions by the Cassation Court. The defense says that the lack of clarity over which judges deliberated is an important issue, and the omission of this information is only one of numerous errors made by the Aix-en-Provence court.
The defense admonished the local prosecutor for “slavishly serving the corrupt regimes of Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine” seeking Ablyazov’s extradition, declaring that she “lacks objectivity” on the case and has “brought shame to the French justice system and the French values she is supposed to uphold”. The lawyers emphasized that the allegations the trio of ex-Soviet countries are making against Ablyazov all flow from the harsh and unlawful 2009 nationalization of BTA Bank by the corrupt Kazakh regime. The nationalization sought to eliminate Ablyazov’s financial base as the leading opponent of the regime, and to prevent Ablyazov from triggering a contagion of political opposition in former Soviet republics.
Prosecutor Legras ordered Ablyazov’s arrest in the south of France in July 2013. Lawyers serving the interests of Kazakh dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev asked her to arrest Ablyazov after their private detectives located him in France. Legras worked with Kazakhstan’s lawyers, ordering Ablyazov’s arrest on the basis of an Interpol notice posted by Ukraine in 2011. She later worked closely with French lawyers appointed by the corrupt and murderous Ukrainian regime to mount a case against Ablyazov that sought to whitewash Kazakhstan’s illegal nationalization of BTA Bank in 2009 and expropriation of its assets. The nationalization of BTA Bank inflicted grave human rights abuses on scores of people and their families, with innocents rounded up, tortured and jailed.
More about
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15KyivPost: prosecutors in Kazakhstan: Ablyazov not to be extradited without the consent of France
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15Le Monde criticized the decision of the Court in Ablyazov case
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09French court authorizes the extradition Mukhtar Ablyazov
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09Ablyazov to appeal against Aix-en-Provence extradition decision
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08Will the decision be issued in Ablyazov's case?
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