The Russian former owner of Portsmouth Football Club is challenging a decision to extradite him to Lithuania to face fraud charges.

Vladimir Antonov, 37, and his Lithuanian business partner Raimondas Baranauskas, 56, are both appealing at London's High Court against their removal.

They are suspected of stripping €470m (£396 million) and $10m-worth (£6 million) of assets and funds from the Lithuanian-based Snoras Bank.

The pair are challenging a ruling by District Judge John Zani, sitting at Westminster Magistrates' Court, that they should be extradited.

Judge Zani concluded that they would receive a fair trial there and found no evidence of risk to their human rights.

Antonov, who was main shareholder and chairman of Snoras, and Baranauskas are also alleged to have submitted false documents to the Lithuanian central bank to conceal their activity across 33 transfers between 2008 and 2011.

Lithuanian prosecutors issued a European arrest warrant for them in November 2011 after naming them as the main suspects in a pre-trial investigation.

The men are appealing in a hearing expected to last two days before Lord Justice Aikens and Mr Justice Simon.

Their grounds include claims that the extradition request was not made in good faith and they are victims of a ''politically motivated conspiracy'' to nationalise Snoras bank, which owned a stake in anti-conservative newspaper Lithuania Morning.

Judge Zani said there was ''no convincing evidence that this (extradition) request has been or is being pursued for any political purpose''.

Antonov's Russian nationality was also not a factor in the case, the judge said, while ''there has only been fleeting reference to the political leanings'' of either man.

The judge also observed London-based Antonov, who owned Portsmouth FC for five months in 2011, has political affiliations to the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, and as the party is back in power ''this challenge is severely weakened''.

Antonov bought the club in June 2011 but was forced to stand down as chairman in November that year when his Convers Sports Initiatives company went into administration.

Snoras bank employed more than 2,300 people across 250 branches with more than a million customers before it was nationalised in 2011.

The bank owned a 34% stake in Lithuania Morning.

Lawyers for Antonov had argued there was an ''anti-Russian sentiment'' in Lithuania which had not been dispelled by the country's current government.