Russian former billionaire Sergei Polonsky, who is on bail on assault charges from the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court, may have been spirited out of Cambodia with the assistance of the Russian government and may now be in Israel, according to a news report.
Mr. Polonsky, 40, and two other Russians, were detained by Cambodian military police in December after an incident at sea in which they allegedly threatened six boatmen with a knife and forced them overboard.
He was released on bail on April 3, on the condition that he remained in Cambodia, but soon traveled to Europe, turning up in Switzerland.
A former property magnate, Mr. Polonsky is also the victim in the Moscow trial of media owner Alexander Lebedev, who punched Mr. Polonsky on live television in 2011. Mr. Polonsky has declined to appear as a witness at the trial, claiming that his Cambodian court case prevents him from doing so.
But this week’s edition of the London-based Mail on Sunday newspaper claimed that it had “traced Mr. Polonsky to a $1 million luxury apartment overlooking Bat Yam beach near Tel Aviv.”
The newspaper claims Mr. Polonsky is staying at an apartment complex with Russian-speaking security guards, into which “a constant stream of luxury vehicles” arrived on Saturday.
The newspaper also quoted a Russian government source saying that Mr. Polonsky left Cambodia just days after his release.
“Polonsky was taken out of Cambodia on a diplomatic plane almost as luggage,” the source was quoted as saying.
Chief of the consular section at the Russian Embassy in Phnom Penh, Pavel Seskanov, could not be reached Monday for comment.
After his release from the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Prison on April 3, Mr. Polosnky is thought to have headed for Koh Dek Koul a private island he leases in Cambodian waters.
One of his lawyers in Cambodia, Long Salux, said Monday that he did not know whether Mr. Polonsky would return to Cambodia to stand trial.
