A former Vladivostok mayor has been detained in Panama and might be extradited to Russia, national media reported on Tuesday.
"Vladimir Nikolayev was on a yacht when he was detained. He did not offer any resistance," a Vladivostok prosecutor's office official told Komsomolskaya Pravda.
But his lawyer, Olga Korovina, denied that he had been taken into custody.
"If he had been detained, I would be the first to learn that," she was quoted as saying.
Neither Russian nor Panamanian officials confirmed the report.
Panamanian Ambassador Julio Cordoba told The Moscow Times that he had learned about the case only from media reports and that he could get official information only by Wednesday.
He also said there was no extradition agreement between the two countries, which could complicate matters.
Nikolayev was suspended and arrested for abuse of office in early 2007. Among other things, he was accused of using city funds to cover private security expenses and private flights.
In December 2007, a Vladivostok court handed him a suspended prison sentence of 4 1/2 years.
But Nikolayev defied travel restrictions and managed to fly to Thailand in 2008. Prosecutors subsequently issued an international arrest warrant and had his suspended sentence turned into an actual sentence.
The Crime.vl.ru web site, which first reported about the case late last week, said Nikolayev probably fled the country after being implicated in a murder case. Nikolayev is accused of taking part in the killing of Mikhail Bedak, director of a local sanatorium, the report said.
Nikolayev is not the first head of the far eastern city to attract the attention of prosecutors. His predecessor as mayor, Yury Kopylov, was given a four-year suspended sentence for abuse of office in 2007.
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