Turkish Cypriot businessman Asil Nadir, jailed in Britain in 2012 for stealing millions from his business empire, has been released in Turkey following a night in jail after he returned there to complete his sentence.
A court ruling said Nadir would be released on probation, serving the rest of his sentence outside prison, and there was no need to monitor him.
Nadir was flown from London to Istanbul on Thursday evening after British authorities accepted his request to serve the rest of his sentence in Turkey. It was not immediately clear if his release was part of the agreement.
His sister, Bilge Nevzat, thanked the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, for their efforts in her brother’s extradition and release, Hürriyet Daily News reported.
The 74-year-old was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2012 for stealing £29m from Polly Peck, an ailing textiles company which he transformed into one of the most successful British firms of the 1980s.
Its collapse in 1990 was one of Britain’s biggest corporate failures and was an embarrassment for the Conservative party, which had accepted big donations from Nadir in the 1980s.
Earlier on Friday, a Justice Ministry spokeswoman in Britain said government policy was to remove foreign criminals to their own countries. “Arrangements were made with the Turkish government for his removal as part of our prisoner transfer agreement,” she said.
Nadir was escorted to a police station on arrival at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, private news agency Dogan reported. Television footage showed him sitting in the back of a car as it arrived at the gates of Silivri prison, west of Istanbul.
The repatriation took place after Nadir repaid £2m he owed the legal aid agency and £5m in compensation he had paid earlier.
Polly Peck collapsed when British officials began a fraud investigation. Nadir was arrested but after being released on bail fled the country in a private plane to live in northern Cyprus, where he was beyond the reach of British law.
Nadir returned to London in 2010 to clear his name after 17 years on the run, but he was found guilty of 10 out of 13 charges of theft.