Binance staffer detained in Nigeria seeks bail on health grounds

By Camillus Eboh

ABUJA (Reuters) - Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan, detained in Nigeria since February, made a fresh bail application on medical grounds on Monday but lawyers for the country's economic crimes agency opposed the request.

Binance and Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen, as well as the exchange's British-Kenyan regional manager for Africa, Nadeem Anjarwalla, have been charged with laundering more than $35 million.

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, also faces separate accusations of tax evasion.

Lawyer Mark Mordi told a High Court in the capital Abuja that he filed a fresh bail application for Gambaryan, Binance's head of financial crime compliance, "because his health has continued to deteriorate while in prison custody."

The court denied Gambaryan's first bail request in May.

Gambaryan says he has a herniated disc, which causes neck and back pain and suffers from bouts of malaria and pneumonia.

He appeared in court using crutches and told a judge that prison officials had denied him a wheelchair.

But a lawyer for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which is prosecuting the money laundering case, argued that Gambaryan was not in ill health because he has had a herniated disc for more than a decade.

The case will continue on Wednesday.

(Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Editing by William Maclean)