UK court rules RUSAL dispute can be heard in Britain

LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - Britain's court of appeal ruled on Friday that Russian entrepreneur Michael Cherney may sue Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska in Britain over a disputed stake in Russian aluminium company RUSAL, Cherney said. "I am pleased that after several years of Mr Deripaska refusing to accept that England was the appropriate place for our dispute to be resolved, the Court of Appeal in England has very strongly endorsed last year's ruling that England is indeed the right venue," Cherney said in a statement. Deripaska's lawyers wanted the case heard in Russia, arguing that was the natural jurisdiction, but lawyers for Cherney say their client's life and freedom would be at risk in Russia and any trial there unfair. The Court of Appeal's decision is a setback for Deripaska, whose companies have suffered in the economic crisis. The dispute with Cherney focuses on a stake Cherney believes he is entitled to in RUSAL, a vast aluminium producer owned by Deripaska that is valued at $36 billion but which has debts totally around $17 billion. Cherney accuses Deripaska, a former business partner, of not honouring an agreement struck in London in 2001 which he says entitled him to a 13.2 percent stake in RUSAL, an agreement that would be governed by English law. Deripaska disputes that, saying that while an agreement was made in London in 2001, it was for a one-off payment of $250 million to Cherney, which would end his obligations to him. He denies that any discussions about English law took place. Friday's decision can, in theory, be further appealed to Britain's highest court, a soon-to-be-inaugurated Supreme Court. (Reporting by Adrian Croft, Luke Baker; Editing by Avril Ormsby)