Italy's supreme Court of Cassation has ruled that the deportation last year of the wife and daughter of a Kazakh dissident was "manifestly illegitimate".
The wife of Kazakh oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, Alma Shalabaeva, and their 6-year-old daughter Alua, were seized in a May 2013 raid in Italy and forcibly returned to Kazakhstan in an incident that caused an uproar in Italy.
Kazakhstan allowed Ablyazov's wife and daughter to return to Italy in December following appeals from the Italian government and a large amount of bad publicity aimed at the Kazakh government.
Shalabaeva and her daughter were granted refugee status in Italy.
Ablyazov remains in detention in France, fighting extradition to Russia and Ukraine, where he is wanted for alleged massive fraud, a charge he denies.
Based on reporting by gazzettadelsud.it and ansa.it