A Russian businessman who went on the run in Cambodia has been captured in a dramatic jungle showdown, reports say.
Eccentric property tycoon Sergei Polonsky – who is perhaps best known as the man who took a punch from Alexander Lebedev, the billionaire owner of the Independent and the Evening Standard, on a television chat show – was captured by Cambodian police on Monday, his lawyer told RIA Novosti.
The tycoon was on bail after being charged with kidnapping in Cambodia, but according to Russian media reports he was arrested after Russia issued a warrant for his arrest via Interpol.
Mr Polonsky’s lawyer, Alexander Karabanov, said Monday that his client had to flee after Cambodian security forces launched a large-scale operation to arrest him in the early hours of the morning.
“About 3 AM Moscow time a special operation to capture Sergei Polonsky began. It involved several dozen armed police who approached Mr. Polonsky’s island on three motor launches,” Mr Karabanov told RIA Novosti Monday morning. “According to my sources in the police, he immediately escaped the island and is now hiding somewhere in the jungle.”
Reports emerging from Cambodia on Monday suggested that police hunted Mr Polonsky for hours after he swam to the mainland and hid in the jungle.
He was finally arrested after his pursuers opened fire, reports suggested.
Television footage from the scene showed a scratched and bruised Mr Polonsky, naked apart from a red towel around his waist, being led away by security forces.
“I don’t know, I was resting, but maybe I ran, I don’t know I need a lawyer,” he told Russian television on the scene.
“I request a lawyer, the consul, the ambassador, the diplomatic mission, the Duma,” he said. “It’s nonsense. I didn’t kill anyone and didn’t steal anything. I’m an honest person, honest. What happened is just a total mess.”
Mr Polonsky is wanted in Russia for embezzling 5.7 billion rubles (£109 million) from a luxury property development project. Russian prosecutors submitted a request for his extradition to Cambodian authorities last week.
But Mr Karabanov dismissed claims his client had been arrested because of the Interpol warrant, accusing Cambodian authorities of “settling personal scores” over accusations of corruption.
“It is not clear to me what is going through the minds of the Cambodian interior ministry. They are settling personal scores, because everyone has seen the video where the chief of police tries to extort money from my client,” he said.
He was referring to a video Mr Polonsky posted on his Facebook page that appeared to show a senior Cambodian police officer demanding $1 million in exchange for not extraditing him.
But the tycoon is still waiting for a final decision from a local court on charges of kidnapping and assault.
Mr Polonsky and two friends were arrested in January on suspicion of taking six Cambodian seamen hostage and locking them in the hold of their yacht, before forcing them to jump overboard.
Mr Polonsky was released on bail in March and has been living in Cambodia ever since.