Tengri News: Ukraine refuses cooperation with Russia in Ablyazov's case
© mukhtarablyazov.org 30.09.2014

Ukraine will not assist Russia in the scandalous case of Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former head of Kazakhstan's BTA Bank, Tengrinews reports. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has made the statement during a press conference on September 25. 

Mukhtar Ablyazov is the former head of Kazakhstan-based BTA Bank. The Kazakh banker is accused of embezzling $6 billion from BTA and faces 13 years of imprisonment and property confiscation in Kazakhstan. He fled the country in 2009. 

Russia and Ukraine also accuse Ablyazov of embezzlement: $5 billion and $400 million respectively. He can be extradited to both the Russians and the Ukrainians from France, where he is currently under arrest.

At a press conference last Thursday one of the reporters asked whether Ukraine was willing to cooperate with Russia, “the aggressor”, in the case of Ablyazov.

Poroshenko replied that there would be no cooperation. "The only thing that the Attorney General’s Office of Ukraine can be guided by is the crime committed on the territory of Ukraine in violation of Ukrainian legislation and causing losses to Ukraine, to the state as well as to the citizens, both individuals and legal entities. I emphasize again, there can be no cooperation with Russia on this issue," Poroshenko said.

Ablyazov was arrested in France in July 2013. A French court ruled to extradite the fugitive to Russia or Ukraine, but the decision never took effect because the case was subsequently returned to court over a technical error in some of the documents. 

His new hearings in Lyon were originally scheduled for June 12  this year but were postponed for September. 

On September 25 the Appellate city court of Lyon began considering the extradition case and will announce the decision on October 6.

Source: tengrinews.kz
Author: Dinara Urazova