An official with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says authorities in Spain have denied her request to see a jailed associate of Kazakh oligarch and opposition figure Mukhtar Ablyazov.
Isabel Santos, the chairwoman of the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly committee on democracy, human rights, and humanitarian questions, had hoped to meet in Madrid with Aleksandr Pavlov on October 17.
Pavlov, Ablyazov's former bodyguard, was detained last year on an Interpol warrant requested by Kazakhstan, which has accused Pavlov of terrorism and embezzlement.
Pavlov, whose political asylum request has been denied, faces extradition to Kazakhstan.
Rights groups fear he will be at risk of torture and an unfair trial there.
Kazakhstan accuses Ablyazov of stealing $6 billion during a government takeover of his BTA Bank in 2009.
Isabel Santos, the chairwoman of the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly committee on democracy, human rights, and humanitarian questions, had hoped to meet in Madrid with Aleksandr Pavlov on October 17.
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Pavlov, Ablyazov's former bodyguard, was detained last year on an Interpol warrant requested by Kazakhstan, which has accused Pavlov of terrorism and embezzlement.
Pavlov, whose political asylum request has been denied, faces extradition to Kazakhstan.
Rights groups fear he will be at risk of torture and an unfair trial there.
Kazakhstan accuses Ablyazov of stealing $6 billion during a government takeover of his BTA Bank in 2009.
