Kozeny free after US extradition request denied by court in Bahamas

The fugitive Czech-born businessman Viktor Kozeny has been released by a court in the Bahamas, after a United States request for his extradition was rejected, the Novinky website reported. Mr Kozeny, nicknamed the Pirate of Prague, is wanted in the US in connection with large-scale fraud connected with a deal to buy out state ownership of the oil industry in Azerbaijan. He is also wanted in the Czech Republic for fraud linked to the 1990s "coupon" privatisation process. A lawyer for Mr Kozeny, Philip Davis, told The Bahama Journal that his client was now free to move about the Bahamas, just as he had done for thirteen years.