Russian businessman Nikolai Doroshenko, who was jailed in March on fraud charges relating to a dispute with his former investment partner, Sergei Polonsky, will on Monday receive a decision from the Appeal Court about his latest request to be freed on bail.
Following a 30-minute hearing at the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh on Thursday, Presiding Judge Khun Leang Meng said that Mr. Doroshenko, 54, would have to wait to find out whether he will be released from Preah Sihanouk provincial prison.
“The hearing judges are still reviewing documents and we will announce [the result] on April 27,” Judge Meng said, declining to comment further.
Mr. Doroshenko, whose first bail request was denied by the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court earlier this month, was not present at Thursday’s hearing, and was represented by his lawyer, Nach Try.
Outside the Appeal Court on Thursday, Mr. Try declined to comment on his client’s case.
“We must not speak carelessly about this case,” he said. “If we talk, maybe the other side will launch another verbal attack.”
Military police arrested Mr. Doroshenko—a Cambodian citizen and longtime Sihanoukville resident—at his family’s Snake House restaurant in the seaside city on March 25 for failing to attend two court hearings related to allegations that he forged signatures on fake documents to cheat Mr. Polonsky, 42, out of $10 million.
In a statement on Monday, Mr. Doroshenko’s son Ostap, 36, described his father as “a man of impeccable reputation,” and called for his release.
The statement also asserted that Mr. Polonsky—who is wanted in Russia on serious embezzlement charges—paid the “fabulous sum” of $250,000 to have his rival imprisoned, a claim that has drawn the threat of legal action from Mr. Polonsky’s lawyer Benson Samay.
“My client and I are organizing documents to file a defamation complaint against [Ostap],” Mr. Samay said Thursday.
Contacted Thursday evening, Ostap Doroshenko said that he had it on good authority that his father’s detention had been paid for by Mr. Polonsky.
“Very high Cambodian people, very rich Cambodian people are talking to me, telling me about this,” he said.
“I cannot say the names, but they are not normal people.”
(Additional reporting by Matt Blomberg)
