Kazakhstan's Anti-Corruption Agency said an "associate" of fugitive former banker and outspoken Kazakh government critic Mukhtar Ablyazov returned on his own to the Central Asian country, where he faces embezzlement charges.
According to the agency, businessman Aleksei Bogdanov's return to Kazakhstan from Brussels was the result of cooperation with Interpol.
Bogdanov was not sent to pretrial detention upon his arrival and instead was released on bail, the agency added in a statement on May 15.
In July 2023, Ablyazov's uncle, Quanysh Nurghazin, returned to Kazakhstan from Lithuania after living there for 12 years.
Kazakh authorities said at the time that Nurghazin was placed under house arrest on suspcion of being "the nominal director" of the BSC company, through which Ablyazov allegedly illegally transferred significant amounts of cash abroad.
Ablyazov, 60, the former head of BTA Bank, is wanted in Kazakhstan and Russia on suspicion of embezzling some $5 billion. Ablyazov and his supporters reject the charge as politically motivated.
Ablyazov was sentenced to life in prison in absentia in 2018 after a court in Kazakhstan found him guilty of masterminding the murder of a banker in 2004.
In a separate in-absentia trial in Kazakhstan that ended in 2017, Ablyazov was convicted of embezzlement, abuse of office, and organizing a criminal group and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In December 2020, a court in Russia sentenced Ablyazov to 15 years in prison in absentia on embezzlement charges.
Ablyazov, who coordinates the activities of the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) opposition movement from abroad, denies all the charges.
The outspoken Kazakh government critic has lived in France for years.
Ablyazov has organized unsanctioned anti-government rallies in Kazakhstan via the Internet while in exile.
Kazakh authorities declared the DVK an extremist organization in 2017 and dozens of the movement's supporters have faced persecution for having links with Ablyazov and his movement.