MOSCOW, Janaury 12 (RAPSI) - Troubled Russian real-estate mogul Sergei Polonsnkyhas been freed after Cambodia denied a Russian request for his extradition, a source told RAPSI on Sunday.

A source at the Cambodian Prosecutor General's Office told RIA Novosti on Monday that Russia’s extradition request had been rejected because Polonsky still faces kidnapping charges in the South East Asian country relating to an incident a year ago on board a boat carrying a group of Russians celebrating New Year.

Russian Prosecutor General's Office told the press on Monday that Cambodian authorities did not review Russia's extradition request as of yet.

The Cambodian police arrested Polonsky, Konstantin Baglay and Alexander Karachinsky on December 31 2012, on charges of having inflicted harm on the crew of a ship heading back to Sihanoukville from nearby islands and of having deprived them of their personal liberty. Prosecutors maintain that, while in a state of intoxication, the men threatened the crew with knives, locked them in a hold, and then forced them to jump overboard. Later, the mogul and his friends were released.

Polonsky was again detained in Cambodia by the local police in November 2013 at the request of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, which seeks the businessman’s extradition. Polonsky was charged in absentia last July as part of a criminal case involving the embezzlement of over 5.7 billion rubles (over $176 million) from the participants in an up-market cooperative residential construction project in central Moscow.

In 2008, Forbes ranked Polonsky Russia's 40th richest man with a $4.35 billion fortune. He headed the Mirax Group, a property development company that went bankrupt during the global economic crisis.