The UN is pressuring Spain not to hand over kazajstani dissident, Alexander Pavlov to this Central Asian Country, notorious for torture. The man had been arrested at Charmartín train station in Madrid in December 2012 and held since.

The Rajoy administration is ‘studying’ the extradition request from energy-rich Kazajstan, where the 37-year-old stands accused of terrorism and fraud.

Previously, a Spanish law court had decided in favour of handing him over, basing its decision on a report from the Spanish National Intelligence Centre, which assured that his continued presence in Spain would mean a threat to national security (external and internal), although it admitted that the data that it had was not ‘trustworthy’ and the case of terrorism could not be proved.

All the opposition parties in the Congress, as well as numerous NGO’s, oppose handing him over. However, as Prime Minister Rajoy was recently in the capital of Kazajstan to sign a gas deal worth 600m euros, many fear that Mariano Rajoy is keen to hand him over.

(News: Spain)