British businessman and Putin critic Bill Browder briefly detained in Spain after Russia issues arrest warrant

Financier later released in Madrid after police claim warrant expired

A British businessman and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin who was detained by Spanish police at Russia’s request has been released.

Bill Browder, a London-based hedge fund manager who has fought a long battle with Moscow, said on Twitter he was arrested in Madrid on Wednesday morning.

“In the back of the Spanish police car going to the station on the Russian arrest warrant,” he wrote. “They won’t tell me which station.”

Police later said the financier had been released as his Interpol arrest warrant had expired. Mr Browder claimed he was freed after Interpol headquarters advised Spanish authorities ”not to honour” Russia’s request.

Mr Browder was sentenced to nine years in prison by a Russia court last year, on fraud and tax evasion charges. Interpol refused to enforce a similar arrest warrant in 2013 against the businessman, judging it to be “political in nature”.

In March, Mr Browder told MPs he believed the Russians would like “more than anything” to arrest him and “get me back to Russia and then kill me in the control of their own system”.

The businessman has been one of Russia’s most high-profile public enemies for many years, once being labelled a “serial killer” by Mr Putin himself.

Mr Browder is credited with playing a key role in the creation of the Magnitsky Act – a range of sanctions imposed by the US in 2012 on top Russian officials accused of corruption.

The sanctions were named in honour of Mr Browder’s Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered a £174m fraud believed to have involved Russian officials against Mr Browder’s investment firm, Hermitage Capital Management.

Mr Magnitsky was imprisoned on what were widely considered to be false charges and died in jail amid claims he was tortured. A Home Office minister called it an “atrocious murder”.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s chief Brexit co-ordinator, tweeted on Wednesday morning: “Worrying that autocratic Russia can get democratic Spain to go after someone fighting to expose Putin’s crimes and those responsible for Magnitsky’s murder.”

“Bill Browder’s rights must be protected,” he added in a tweet messaged to Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister .

After his release, Mr Browder said: “Ironically, the reason I’m in Madrid is to give evidence to senior Spanish anti-Russian mafia prosecutor Jose Grinda about the huge amount of money from the Magnitsky case that flowed to Spain.

“Now that I’m released my mission carries on. Meeting with Prosector Grinda now.”

Boris Johnson, Britain’s foreign secretary, said he had spoken to Mr Browder and was “very glad” he had been released.

“Moscow should concentrate on bringing those responsible for the murder of Magnitsky to justice,” he added.

Bob Seely, a Conservative MP who sits on the foreign affairs committee, said: “After repeated attempts to use the law against Bill Browder, we should be concerned.

“Bill Browder is a political enemy of the Kremlin, not a criminal enemy. President Putin seeks his arrest because of Browder’s work in implementing the Magnitsky Acts in many states throughout the world, following the imprisonment, murder and trial – after death – of anti-corruption lawyer Mr Sergei Magnitksy.

“The Kremlin’s attempts to go after its critics does not seem to have been diminished by the Skripal poisoning case in Britain. If anything, Moscow seems to be upping the ante.

“We have the World Cup in barely two weeks. You would have thought that the Russian state would wish to avoid controversy. The willingness of the Kremlin to antagonise and challenge – whether it is poisoning in the UK or the use of the law in Spain – seems to be undiminished.”

Speaking to the digital, culture, media and sport committee in March, Mr Browder said the Russian state had branded him a spy and a tax cheat and accused him of stealing £4.5bn from the IMF.

“I have been threatened on a number of occasions with death,” he told the MPs looking into the issue of so-called fake news.

Russia has tried to extradite Mr Browder from the UK several times, and he was once detained at Geneva airport, on a request from Moscow.