Russia hands over Kazakh suspect in BTA embezzlement case

    The main suspect in the embezzlement plot is former BTA chief Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is currently being held in France.
    The Russian Prosecutor General has handed over Erlan Kosaev, a former official with Kazakhstan's BTA bank who is accused of involvement in an embezzlement scheme that cost the bank billions of dollars.
    The prosecutor's office released a statement saying, "Today, September 21…E. Kosaev was transferred fr om Russia to Kazakhstan and was put in a confinement area in Astana."
    Kosaev fled Kazakhstan and was apprehended in the Russian city of Bryansk.
    He has been held while Russian courts reviewed Kazakhstan's extradition request.
    The main suspect in the embezzlement plot is former BTA chief Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is currently being held in France.
    Ablyazov fled before Kazakh authorities could capture him, leaving many of his associates behind in Kazakhstan wh ere they were arrested.
    Ablyazov maintains it is his opposition to the Kazakh government that is motivating Astana to seek his extradition and that he would not receive a fair trial back in Kazakhstan.