17 years on, fugitive figures it's right time to face court

London One of Britain's most notorious fugitives flew back to the United Kingdom yesterday in an attempt to clear his name 17 years after fleeing the country in a private jet.

Asil Nadir, 69, is returning to face the multi-million-pound fraud charges that followed the spectacular collapse of his Polly Peck food and electronics empire in 1993.

He arrive at Luton airport from his native Northern Cyprus around lunchtime, and is due to appear at the Old Bailey next Thursday.

Nadir said he believed the legal "environment" was right for him to return.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I'm hoping to get a fair trial, if this matter goes to trial, obviously. But that was not the case in the past. I spent from 1990 to 1993, almost December of 93, battling with immense injustice and tremendous abuse of power in Britain. My health had deteriorated and at that point I felt that, to save my life, I had to come to recuperate... I have been asking since then for the environment to be as it is today."

Bail agreement

Nadir claimed he had already "proved my innocence to the authorities without doubt but nobody took any notice at that time" and denied having made a deal over his treatment when he returns.

Nadir will have to wear an electronic tag until the end of his trial and pay a bail surety of £250,000 (Dh917,925). The fugitive tycoon and Conservative party donor, will resume a court battle that came to a dramatic end when he fled Britain in 1993.

He had been due to answer 66 charges of theft and false accounting in a £34 million fraud trial.

Nadir, who now runs a media firm in the Turkish-controlled territory, will argue that there was a grave abuse of process in the case brought against him by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

For years he has alleged that the police and the SFO placed the judge in his case under improper pressure, made false allegations of corruption against him and his advisers and seized documents necessary for his defence.

Polly Peck, the company Nadir built from scratch, was one of the biggest city success stories of the 1980s, delivering returns to shareholders of up to 1,000 times their original investment.

His empire collapsed in 1990 when he was arrested on theft and false accounting charges.

— Guardian News & Media Ltd