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Cambodia court delays Polonsky’s extradition request

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Cambodia court to rule on Russian businessman Polonsky’s extradition on January 12

MOSCOW, January 13. /ITAR-TASS/. Cambodian court did not try and delayed an extradition request of Russian business tycoon Sergey Polonsky, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said on Monday.

“The court delayed the hearings of his extradition request from the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office,” an official in the country’s Prosecutor General’s Office said.

The official noted that a criminal case over the incident with the sailors is being investigated against Polonsky in Cambodia and most likely his extradition to Russia will be tried at merit proceedings after Cambodian authorities will complete their investigation.

Polonsky’s lawyer Alexander Karabanov said earlier that Cambodia had refused to extradite Sergey Polonsky to Russia. “The today’s court verdict puts an end in the extradition case. The Cambodian court did not find corpus delicti in the Interpol material. The court ruled that a legal dispute between Polonsky and Russian authorities should be settled within civil legal relations,” the lawyer said.

Polonsky was released from the Cambodian detention centre, but he will live on recognizance not to leave the city in Cambodia so far, Karabanov noted.

“The investigation department of the Russian Interior Ministry has not received official documents from Cambodia over the denial to produce additional material in the criminal case,” the press centre added.

“The Interior Ministry has learnt about this from the media reports, therefore, Cambodia had made a request to present additional material in the criminal case,” the press centre added.

“If the media reports are confirmed, Russian law enforcement agencies will keep insisting on extradition of the businessman, because a criminal case was opened against him and is actively being investigated,” the press service said.

On June 14, 2013, the investigation department of the Russian Interior Ministry accused in absentia Sergey Polonsky of a massive fraud in the construction of the residential district “Kutuzovskaya Mile” in Moscow. More than 80 people were found as injured parties in the criminal case. The detectives have found that a company under control of Polonsky has received around 5.7 billion rubles ($171.6 million) from depositors, but then has frozen up the construction project, breaking the liabilities in the contracts. After that the company’s top management initiated deliberate bankruptcy and shut down of the company.

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