MOSCOW, June 11 (RAPSI) - The Supreme Court of Spain has decided to extradite Ilya Khaikin, former board chairman of Vneshagrobank and a director at Diskont Bank, suspected of seizing land in the Moscow Region, Kommersant newspaper wrote on Tuesday.

According to the newspaper, starting in 2001 Khaikin and his accomplices used the companies they controlled to illegally acquire ownership rights for five land plots, amounting totally to over 714 hectares, in the Leninsky Luch cooperative farm. At that time, the land plots were worth 35 million rubles (over $1 million). In 2003 the group attempted, but failed, to take over three other plots with a total area of 261 hectares in the same farm.

In August 2007, Khaikin, who had fled to the UK, was put on the international wanted list. He was granted political asylum in the UK in 2008. The British authorities refused to extradite him to Russia.

In October 2012, he was detained by a local Interpol branch in the resort town of Marbella, Spain. A month later the court released him on EUR 500,000 bail.  Several days ago, the Supreme Court of Spain ruled that Khaikin should be extradited to Russia.

According to Kommersant's sources, the banker's lawyers have already filed an appeal against this decision.

If Khaikin is extradited to Russia, it will create a precedent. So far, suspects in a similar position who were detained as Khaikin was were invariably released.