At the beginning of December 2014, French MP and the Chair of the Committee on European Affairs in the French National Assembly – Ms Danielle Auroi, as well as Spanish MEP and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament – Mr Fernando Maura Barandiaran have appealed on the case of Mr Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh oppositionist and a political opponent of President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Ms Auroi asked the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Minister Mr Laurent Fabius about the recent decision of the court in Lyon of 24 October, 2014, which has decided to extradite Mr Ablyazov to Russia or Ukraine. In the interpellation, French MP referred to the risk of Mr Ablyazov’s transfer from Russia or Ukraine to Kazakhstan, as well as possible torture and other ill-treatment. In her question, Mr Auroi asked about the position of the French government in the case of Mr Ablyazov, indicating that he has been granted a political asylum in the United Kingdom.
Mr Maura Barandiaran, beside the intervention on Mr Ablyazov’s case, referred to the similar example of Alexander Pavlov, a former security chief of Mr Ablyazov and a head of the independent Kazakh media group, Respublika, which was not extradited to Kazakhstan and has been granted protection in Spain (LINK).
Before, Mr Maura Barandiaran was also involved in the case of Mr Pavlov, during his term in the Spanish parliament.