MOSCOW, February 20 (RAPSI) - The National Court of Spain has suspended the extradition of Alexander Pavlov, former BTA Bank CEO Mukhtar Ablyazov's chief of security, over security fears, The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported Thursday.

The Spanish court decided to extradite Pavlov last June on a request from Kazakhstan. Pavlov has been in Spain since December 2012. Pavlov appealed the decision, claiming that Ablyazov's prosecution had been political, and that Pavlov may share the same fate. On November 8, National Court of Spain confirmed the decision to extradite Pavlov.

Pavlov is accused of having embezzled EUR22.5 million and in connection with terrorism, and is a known associate and security chief of BTA Bank's ex-CEO Mukhtar Ablyazov.

Kazakh authorities say that a series of terror attacks was prevented in Almaty in March 2012, and that Pavlov who had been evading justice since 2009 was behind it.

Pavlov has headed Ablyazov's personal security since 2005, and ran personal errands for him. The Prosecutor General's Office reports that Pavlov aided his boss in embezzling money from the bank, and helped to evacuate Ablyazov's personal archives and the bank's computer hard drives, after which he fled to UK.

Ablyazov was detained on July 31,2013, near Cannes, France. Kazakhstan is seeking the extradition of Ablyazov, who fled to the UK after the Kazakh government acquired a stake in defaulted BTA in 2009 and the bank came under the control of its sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna.  But Kazakhstan and France do not have an extradition treaty. Ablyazov, 50, is accused of embezzling billions of dollars from BTA. On January 9, the court of Aix-en-Provence ruled to extradite Ablyazov to Russia or Ukraine, with the priority given to the Russian side.

Ablyazov, the bank's former chairman, fled to Britain and was granted political asylum in 2011. He left the country a year later when a High Court judge in London sentenced him to 22 months in prison for contempt of court.

BTA has filed 11 law suits in London accusing its former top management of embezzling $6 billion. Ablyazov claims the charges against him are politically motivated.

The High Court ordered Ablyazov to pay $400 million in damages to BTA in November after ruling that the bank had been defrauded of $300 million in a case relating to a portfolio of AAA-rated securities.