MOSCOW, April 20 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has communicated an application by Russian nationalist Alexander Potkin over his long stay in detention, his attorney Irina Khrunova told RAPSI on Wednesday.

“ECHR is not going to ask Russian government any questions in our case because this wrongful judicial practice has already been studied enough. For ECHR it is an obvious case: a person is staying in detention for a year and a half – that’s far too long. This is why Belov-Potkin’s appeal will be reviewed in a simplified procedure,” Khrunova said.

Potkin (also known as Belov) was arrested on October 15, 2014 at the Hotel Intourist Kolomenskoe in Moscow on charges related to the embezzlement of $5 billion from BTA Bank. At the time of the arrest, Potkin allegedly had documents on him that effectively tied him to the embezzlement.

Investigators believe that Potkin (Belov) was a mastermind in a money laundering operation in 2012-2014. He was also suspected of involvement in laundering money that was embezzled from BTA Bank by its former chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov.

Ablyazov, who allegedly defrauded BTA Bank of more than $6 billion, left Kazakhstan for the UK, where he was granted political asylum in 2011. However, he remained a fugitive from justice since February 2012.

Ablyazov’s whereabouts remained unknown until he was detained on July 31, 2015 near Cannes, France. Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine are all seeking his extradition.

In October 2015, French authorities approved Ablyazov’s extradition to Russia.