WASHINGTON — Neil Bush, son of the late former president, is deeply involved in a legal fight playing out in the Middle East over the fate of an imprisoned Russian woman, a battle featuring a cast of global characters and an unusual alliance of American and Russian interests.

Bush, of Houston, made his fourth trip to Kuwait this month on behalf of Marsha Lazareva, a U.S.-educated investment manager who was convicted of embezzlement and faces other charges related to alleged financial crimes.

As a consultant to a company run by Lazareva, Bush invokes the Gulf War and George H.W. Bush’s success in freeing Kuwait from Saddam Hussein-led Iraq, warning that keeping Lazareva locked up threatens Kuwait’s standing in the world.

“As a member of the Bush family, I hoped that Kuwait would continue to shine as a member of civilized nations in terms of its human rights record and its judicial process,” he said in an interview. “I’m involved, and I can’t shake it until there’s justice done. I’m 100 percent committed,” he said.

The fight to free Lazareva is being waged on the public relations front as well as by legal luminaries in court, with relatives of the famous recruited to the case to raise humanitarian alarms in hopes of bringing global pressure on Kuwait. Cherie Blair, a human rights lawyer and wife of former UK prime minister Tony Blair, is involved, as is former Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s daughter, Tatyana Yumasheva.

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Former FBI director Louis Freeh, who headed the agency in the Clinton administration and briefly under President George W. Bush, is also on Lazreva’s team and has traveled to Kuwait for the courtroom drama playing out on recent Sundays.

Bush and others have emphasized details of Lazareva’s year-long detainment in overcrowded conditions and lack of access to a phone or computer to work on her case. A court pleading contends that Lazareva “has been subjected to intimidation, harassment and long hours of interrogation.”

Lazareva, 44, a Russian citizen, is a graduate of Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the single mother of a four-year-old son, an American citizen. She was convicted in May 2018 and sentenced to 10 years with hard labor for crimes related to a fund she manages that included Kuwaiti government investments.

In a post-conviction interview with a journalist from Forbes Magazine, Lazareva said documents detailing the accusations against her were denied to her defense team. “All my human and civil rights were completely violated during the court hearings. The judge made many racist comments toward me during the case and singled me out as a woman,” she said.

On May 5, a Kuwaiti appellate court voided Lazareva’s conviction, which related to consulting she’d been been paid to do but allegedly had not performed.

The ruling was a victory for Bush and Lazareva’s defenders. But it was tempered when the court imposed an extraordinary $65 million bail each for Lazareva and a business partner, both of whom face additional charges, assuring that they remain in prison.

In proceedings last Sunday, the Kuwaiti court declined to lower bail, prompting Bush to recall Saddam Hussein.

"The United States offered a $25 million reward for the capture of Saddam Hussein. Kuwait is demanding a shocking $130 million to release two innocent people who have been wrongly imprisoned for over a year,” Bush said in a statement. “Forces in Kuwait are clearly working to prevent justice from being served in this case.”

Pleading with Trump to intervene

Lazareva’s conviction and still more charges stem from her role as CEO of KGL Investment, a Kuwaiti company that managed a fund that included Kuwait’s Ports Authority and Social Security fund as investors. The fund was so successful that it nearly doubled investors’ money thanks to a development deal in the Philippines.

Kuwaiti officials charged Lazareva with an array of financial crimes. Still pending are charges that she embezzled or helped others embezzle tens of millions of dollars invested in the fund she manages, laundered money and otherwise misappropriated government monies.

Lazareva’s lawyers contend that the remaining allegations are false, that the money can be accounted for and that the charges are politically motivated by business rivals with ties to the Kuwaiti government.

Kuwaiti officials in Kuwait City and Washington did not respond to inquiries about the case.

Lazareva’s imprisonment has drawn little attention in the United States but could blow up if the Trump administration heeds a request by Bush and others to invoke the Magnitsky Act, which enables sanctions on foreign individuals accused of human rights violations and seizure of their U.S. assets.

Other high-profile personalities have been drawn to Lazareva’s defense - and likely to the prospect of a payday if the wealthy woman can be freed.

Lazareva’s British lawyer, Alex Carlile, otherwise known as Lord Carlile of Berriew, is partners with Sir John Scarlett, a former head of the British secret intelligence service MI6.

Bush was recruited by Jim Nicholson, a former Republican National Committee head and Veterans Affairs secretary under George W. Bush. Nicholson, now at a Washington lobby firm, also has traveled to Kuwait on Lazareva’s behalf.

Ed Royce, until January a GOP congressman from California and Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, is part of a powerhouse lobby campaign in Washington. Several lobbyist firms reported payments totaling $2.7 million in the first quarter of 2019 from firms and an investment fund associated with Lazareva, according to lobbyist disclosure records.

‘A rare moment of cooperation’ with Russia

At a time when Russian meddling in U.S. elections colors debates across Washington, the coordination of Americans and Russians on Lazareva’s is notable.

Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke of the matter when he visited Kuwait in March, the Kuwaiti Times reported. The Russian Federation’s Chamber of Commerce has been involved and an executive of a Russian government-owned bank, Vladimir Sidorov, joined former FBI director Louis Freeh and Carlile in recent proceedings.

“I think it is a rare moment of cooperation,” said Bush of the U.S.-Russian alliance.

Bush, 64, is the fourth child of the late George H.W. and Barbara Bush. He operates Neil Bush Global Advisers, focused recently on business development in China and other Asian nations, he said. With a name that opens doors, Bush has had far-flung business dealings in the past, including investments by a Kuwaiti and a Russian billionaire in an educational software startup he co-founded in 1999. He no longer is affiliated with that company.

Bush noted another success in Lazareva’s case, helping win the release of $496 million from KGL’s investment proceeds frozen until February in a Dubai bank, money later distributed to Kuwaiti government entities and others.

Bush said that part of his mission is persuading Kuwaiti leaders that their reputation as a haven for investments will be damaged.

“The tricky thing, honestly, is to not be seen as intervening in Kuwaiti internal affairs,” he added.

Kuwait’s internal affairs, says Middle East expert Theodore Karasik, can be difficult for outsiders to fathom given a system in which the royal family and businesses have influence in the courts.

Karasik, a senior adviser for Gulf States Analytics — a Washington firm that examines risks for clients - has written sympathetically about Lazareva.

"She got caught up in the judicial mess over there and its drawing some very interesting international attention," he said.

"A case like this harms the reputation of Kuwait, which is seeking more international investment. But in their culture, if something goes wrong, whether you’re guilty or not, they will drag things out. They want to make you scream."