On March 7, the Court of Appeal in the French city of Aix-en-Provence ruled that fugitive Kazakh oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov was fined for failing to appear in court. The court refused to accept Ablyazov’s arguments about political persecution as an excuse for not appearing. This was reported on the website of BTA Bank, Tengrinews.kz reports .
Mukhtar Ablyazov was supposed to appear in the court of Aix-en-Provence on June 15 and 16, 2021 for interrogation. At the last moment before the meeting, Ablyazov, through his lawyer, announced that he did not intend to follow the instructions of the French court , arguing his decision with fear of political persecution.
“Later, BTA filed a motion to impose a fine on Ablyazov due to his failure to appear in court. In the appellate instance, the court found that Mukhtar Ablyazov had already appeared on a similar summons in 2018. Ablyazov was also deprived of refugee status, first in England and then in France, therefore he could not refer to this status for failure to appear in court .. At the same time, the investigating judge Ablyazov was assigned a measure of judicial control, which, among other things, includes the appearance at the request of the court. Mukhtar Ablyazov violated this measure by not appearing at the summons of the court of the city of Aix-en – Provence,” the message says.
On March 7, the Court of Appeal of the city of Aix-en-Provence ruled that Mukhtar Ablyazov had not complied with the court’s request to appear, in connection with which he was fined.
“BTA Bank welcomes the fair decision of the French court. Mukhtar Ablyazov and his accomplices have repeatedly refused to honestly participate in litigation and violated numerous court rulings, including in the United States, for which they were held accountable and fined,” the bank noted.
Recall that in Kazakhstan, Ablyazov received 20 years in prison in absentia for embezzling about $7 billion from BTA Bank, and in 2018 he received a life sentence for organizing the murder of banker Yerzhan Tatishev.
In February 2012, the High Court of England ordered the arrest of Mukhtar Ablyazov. According to the state agency, he repeatedly gave false testimony, presented false documents to the court, through which assets and transactions were hidden from the bank, and also did not appear at court hearings.
Ablyazov is also wanted by Russia and Ukraine on suspicion of embezzlement.
In December last year, France denied Ablyazov’s asylum .
Source: Tengri News
