Kyrgyz ex-president's son arrested in London

[October 13, 2012]  BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) -- The fugitive son of Kyrgyzstan's deposed president has been arrested by police in London on a U.S. extradition warrant on suspicion of fraud, British and Kyrgyz authorities said Saturday.

London's Metropolitan Police said 34-year-old Maksim Bakiyev was arrested Friday afternoon and faces charges of conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice between 2010 and 2012.

He was detained by officers from the force's extradition unit after agreeing to go to a police station in the upmarket Belgravia area of the city, and released on bail until his next court hearing on Dec. 7, it said.

Kyrgyz prosecutors say that companies owned by Bakiyev avoided almost $80 million in taxes on aviation fuel sold to suppliers of a U.S. air base in the country, a key refueling point for warplanes flying over Afghanistan and a major hub for combat troop movement.

Kyrgyz authorities said no extradition agreement exists between the Central Asian nation and Britain, but that Bakiyev could be extradited to face trial in the U.S.

The allegations date back to 2005, the year Maxim's father Kurmanbek Bakiyev came to power. His critics claim he soon started grooming his son as a successor.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted from power in a mass uprising in 2010 stoked by indignation over stagnant economic progress and rampant corruption.

He fled to Belarus, where he now lives under the auspices of its authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.

[Associated Press]

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