MOSCOW, January 21 (RAPSI) - A London court held Monday that two former owners of AB Bankas Snoras would receive a fair trial in Lithuania, thus holding that they can be extradited to the country to stand trial for fraud, according to a report by Bloomberg Business.

The presiding judge was quoted in the report as having stated his belief that neither Vladimir Antonov nor Raimondas Baranauskas would be prejudiced during the Lithuanian trial. Antonov and Baranauskas have seven days to appeal.

Monday’s decision arose from an extradition request filed by Lithuania.

On November 16, 2011, the Lithuanian government decided to nationalize Snoras to rescue the bank from bankruptcy. The formal reason was its failure to meet the watchdog's request for certain information in addition to its poor financial state. The bank was also suspected of illegal transactions. Snoras then suspended its operations.

The Bank of Lithuania later acknowledged that even a federal funds injection would not save the bank and decided to shut it down. The court declared Snoras bankrupt on December 7. The decision came into force on December 20, 2011.

Both major Snoras shareholders - Antonov and Baranauskas - have been suspected of embezzling the bank's assets and financial fraud. They were arrested in London in late November upon the Prosecutor General's Office's request. They were later released on bail.

A UK court has frozen Antonov's assets worth 493 million euro upon the Snoras bankruptcy administrator's request. Antonov was unable to explain the disappearance of 4 billion litas (1.158 billion euro) from the bank.

Snoras was part of Antonov's Convers Group. The Convers Group held 68.10 percent of shares in the bank and another 25.3 percent were held by Baranauskas.