Ex-Portsmouth Boss Fails To Block Extradition

Vladimir Antonov, the ex-owner of Portsmouth FC, has failed to block extradition to Lithuania, where he faces £400m fraud charges.

The Russian entrepreneur, along with his Lithuanian business partner, Raimondas Baranauskas, had told the High Court they were being used as "scapegoats" after a Lithuanian bank they controlled, Snoras, was controversially nationalised.

Antonov, 39, had claimed the extradition request was "politically motivated" and made in bad faith by the Lithuanian government.

The administration has faced considerable criticism from a newspaper which is owned by the bank.

At the High Court in London, Lord Justice Aikens and Mr Justice Simon rejected their bid to block the extradition, and said there was no evidence to support Antonov's claims that he was being prosecuted because of his political views and Russian nationality.

Lithuanian prosecutors had issued a European arrest warrant for the pair in November 2011, after they were named as the main suspects in a pre-trial investigation into money laundering.

The scandal left Antonov with no choice but to resign from Portsmouth Football Club.

Back in January 2014, a district judge at Westminster Magistrates' Court had ruled that the extradition could go ahead, as he was satisfied that Antonov and Baranauskas would receive a fair trial on the fraud charges in Lithuania

During the latest appeal, Judge Zani was accused by John Jones QC of "failing to engage with the significant quantity of evidence" which proved the extradition demand was politically motivated.