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Arrested Russian tycoon Sergei Polonsky to get married in a Cambodian prison

The Cambodian authorities arrested Polonsky on November 11

© ITAR-TASS/Mitya Aleshkovsky

MOSCOW, November 22, 22:24 /ITAR-TASS/. The Cambodian authorities have officially permitted arrested Russian tycoon Sergei Polonsky to get married in prison. The wedding ceremony will take place in a pre-trial detention ward where Polonsky is being kept in custody, the businessman’s lawyer, Alexander Karabanov, told Itar-Tass on Friday.

Karabanov said that Polonsky and his future wife Olga Deripasko would submit documents to the Russian consular service in Cambodia on November 23 so that their marriage was official registered and valid in Russian territory. He added that the wedding was scheduled for early December and that a list of guests to be allowed to be present at the ceremony was now being approved.

Karabanov explained that the hastiness of the wedding decision was indeed prompted by harsh reality. “We really do not know what’s in store for us tomorrow. That is why we should make crucial decisions, both of personal and business nature, today,” the lawyer said.

On June 14, 2013, the Investigation Department of the Russian Interior Ministry in absentia accused Polonsky of defrauding more than 80 investors of the Kutuzovskaya Mile housing project of 5.7 billion roubles. He was arrested in absentia in August.

On October 14, the Russian Interior Ministry put the businessman on Interpol’s international wanted list.

The Cambodian authorities arrested Polonsky on November 11. A Cambodian police spokesman confirmed that he would be extradited to Russia but did not name any concrete date.

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