Source: BBC News                                     Date: 10 February, 2011

A London court has refused an application for bail for Mr. B. Khurts, the 41-year-old head of the executive office of Mongolia's National Security Council, who was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport in September and has been in police custody since.

He was arrested on a European Arrest Warrant dating back to 2003 that, according to his lawyers, he had no idea existed. They say he was told he would be attending high-level government talks on intelligence co-operation. They have accused the British Foreign Office of "duplicitously luring Mr. Khurts to his arrest and imprisonment at the behest of the German government".

A lawyer for German authorities seeking Mr. Khurts' extradition told the court the charge was baseless, and the UK government did not lure the Mongolian official to the country to be arrested and extradited. He said there was no evidence of such a plan.

Mr. Khurts thought he was arriving for government talks, his lawyers say, when he was arrested over an alleged role in kidnapping and false imprisonment. Judgment on extradition was reserved to February 18.

Lawyer Aaron Watkins, for the German authorities, said: "There is no evidence of the judicial authority cooking up a plan with the government. This warrant was issued some time ago and has been live, pending execution in every single jurisdiction where it sits for many years. All of that is entirely inconsistent with some Machiavellian conspiracy to procure Bat Khurts' surrender and ultimate extradition."

The Foreign Office has previously said the arrest "in no way amounts to a diplomatic or political statement by the British government", adding, "Judicial authorities, which are wholly independent of the government, are carrying out their independent legal function in accordance with the law."

Mr. Khurts is accused of involvement in the kidnapping in France in 2003 of Mongolian national D. Enkhbat, driving him to Berlin, drugging him and flying him back to Mongolia.