Russian who owned Portsmouth football club held in France

Russian businessman Vladimir Antonov, a former owner of English football club Portsmouth, has been arrested in western France on suspicion of fraud, a spokesman for prosecutors said on Friday.

Antonov was detained in Baden, near Vannes, on Tuesday "on a European arrest warrant issued by Lithuania", a spokesman for the Rennes court of appeal prosecutors told AFP.

He and his Lithuanian business advisor, Raimondas Baranauskas, are accused of stripping assets and funds worth £400 million (455 million euros, $535 million) from a leading Lithuanian bank, Snoras, when it was nationalised in 2011.

Antonov was arrested in Britain in 2011, but later released.

He purchased Portsmouth, then in the second-tier Championship, in June 2011.

But he stepped down the following November when his company, Convers Sports Initiatives, went into administration following his arrest over fraud allegations.

In 2015, a lawyer said Antonov had fled Britain because he feared for his life.

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