Moti’s dad sets record straight

– Reports that Zunaid Moti, pictured, had failed in his second bid for bail in Munich, Germany, were inaccurate, the controversial businessperson’s father said yesterday.

Online news reports, some of them from Zimbabwe, said that Moti had been denied bail and now faced extradition to Russia.

Moti was placed under provisional arrest on August 19 at Munich Airport following a Diffusion Notice being issued by Russian authorities on January 24. He was on a business trip at the time, according to his family.

The jailed businessperson’s father, Dr Abbas Moti, said it was “a rumour” that his son had lost his bail bid.

In 2017, Russian businessperson and Moti’s former business partner, Alibek Issaev, was responsible for an Interpol-issued Red Notice through Lebanese authorities when he claimed the businessperson, Dr Moti and Ashruf Kaka and Salim Bobat defrauded him of millions in a mining deal in Lebanon in 2013.

The men claimed the warrants were obtained on the strength of falsified information. Moti denied ever having been to Lebanon and instead claimed Issaev stole a R500 million pink diamond and other property from him.

Interpol’s website explains that a “diffusion notice” is similar to the more commonly known “Red Notice” circulated to all members. The former is less formal and is circulated directly by an Interpol member country’s National Central Bureau to the member countries of their choice.

Moti’s lawyer, Ulrich Roux, did not respond to messages yesterday. However, in a statement issued following his client’s arrest in August, Roux said that Moti had been “subject to a litany of spurious and fraudulent claims made by a known member of the Russian Mafia, who lives in Dubai”.

Roux said the Lebanese Red Notice was “blocked” on December 15, 2017 through a directive by the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files and that the manner in which the Russians issued the Diffusion Notice “circumvented the Control of Interpol’s Files’ directive and … [Interpol’s] … General Secretariat’s control measures”.

“The alleged charges that form the basis of the Diffusion Notice are evidently a complete fabrication and part of a continued stratagem adopted by the Russian Mafia to extort payment by Mr Moti of substantial sums of money,” said Roux. – ANA

Durban