[JURIST] The French Court of Cassation [official website, in French] on Wednesday approved the extradition of Mukhtar Ablyazov [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], Kazakhstan’s former energy minister accused of misappropriating USD $6 billion from BTA Bank [corporate website]. The court upheld [AP report] the extradition requests from Russia and Ukraine, which both house BTA Bank branches, partly because France does not have an extradition agreement with Kazakhstan. The next course of action by French authorities is to sign an extradition decree, which Ablyazov’s lawyers oppose. At this time Ablyazov’s lawyers can appeal the ruling to France’s highest court or the European Court of Human Rights to continue to fight the extradition.

Human rights watchdog groups have criticized Ablyazov’s extradition. Amnesty International (AI) in January advocated against Ablyazov’s extradition [press release] after a lower court’s ruling. Julie Hall, AI expert on counter-terrorism and human rights expressed concern that Ablyazov would not receive a fair trial in Russia or Ukraine, and that he would eventually end up in Kazakhstan, where he would be at risk of “torture and other ill-treatment.” Her fears are brought about by a report on the routine cooperation of Russia and Ukraine with central Asian republics [report, PDF], including Kazakhstan, to transfer people back to the area, often in violation of human rights. Kazakhstan has recently drawn international criticism for its human rights record. In November a court in Kazakhstan upheld the conviction [JURIST report] of an outspoken opposition leader accused of inciting dissent in an attempt to overthrow the government. In October Human Rights Watch claimed that oil workers in the country face mistreatment [JURIST report] and repression at the hands of the government and oil companies.