MOSCOW, October 3 (RAPSI) – A French appeals court has once again rejected an application filed by former BTA Bank CEO Mukhtar Ablyazov to be released from custody pending the outcome of extradition proceedings, BTA Bank announced Thursday.

In a statement, the bank’s Managing Director Pavel Prosyankin lauded the outcome, saying: “We welcome today’s court decision to reject Mukhtar Ablyazov’s request to be released on bail. He is already a fugitive from Kazakhstan and the UK and has consistently demonstrated that he cannot be trusted to respect any laws which would hold him to account for his fraud.”

Ablyazov was detained on July 31 near Cannes, France. Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine all seek extradition of the fugitive banker. Kazakhstan and France do not have an extradition treaty and extradition to Russia may be hindered for procedural reasons, so Ukraine remains the prime destination.

Kazakhstan is seeking the extradition of Ablyazov, who fled to the UK after the Kazakh government acquired a stake in BTA in 2009 and the bank came under the control of its sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna.

Ablyazov was granted political asylum in Britain in 2011.

In 2009, BTA filed a suit on the alleged embezzlement of $6 billion by its former leadership in the London High Court. In May 2011, the court accepted the bank's complaints against former Ablyazov. In February 2012, it ruled in absentia to detain Ablyazov for 22 months for contempt of court and deprived him of the right to defend his interests.According to BTA Bank’s Thursday statement, “The English High Court has already found him liable for fraud and ordered him to pay the Bank over $3 billion.”
He maintains that the charges against him were politically motivated.