Businessman Polonsky deported from Cambodia to Russia

The move came a year after Cambodia's top court ruled against extradition of Polonsky, whom Russia arrested in absentia in mid-2013 over fraud charges related to a Moscow real estate development project.

"The staff of the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry are deporting Mr. Polonsky to the territory of the Russian Federation and he will be prosecuted in accordance to the Russian law," an official at the ministry, Elena Alekseyeva, said on Sunday.

Charges against Polonsky, who was once worth $1.2 billion, are related to a property business he founded, which is accused of stealing more than 5.7 billion roubles (73 million pounds) of prepayments for flats in a residential housing complex it was building.

Slavik Brsoyan, a Russian defence lawyer for Polonsky, on Sunday confirmed that his client was being transported to Russia. However, he added that the defence team in Russia and Cambodia had not been officially informed of the deportation and a Russian lawyer who travelled to Cambodia after Polonsky had been arrested there on Friday and was detained by local authorities.

He said that Polonsky was not guilty of the charges but could face a maximum of 10 years in jail if convicted.

Polonsky was expected to land in Moscow's Domodedovo airport in the evening.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Louise Heavens and David Goodman)