PARIS, December 13 (RAPSI) – The Prosecutor General's Office of Aix-en-Provence asked to grant a request for extradition of former BTA Bank CEO Mukhtar Ablyazov to Russia because more serious crimes have been committed there, AFP reported.

Earlier, the prosecutors asked to extradite Ablyazov to Ukraine. A court in Aix-en-Provence on Thursday began the hearing of Ablyazov's extradition to Ukraine.

The hearing was set to begin in September, but was rescheduled to December 3, as Ablyazov was not proficient in Ukrainian and French languages in which the documents were submitted to the court. The hearing was then again postponed for a week.

During his detainment in France, Ablyazov twice filed for bail, but the court refused on the grounds that the banker's safety could not be properly looked after if he is not kept in a penitentiary facility.

Ablyazov was detained on July 31 near Cannes, France. Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine are all seeking the 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 choice 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.