Austria does not want to hand over oligarch Firtash to the US
A regional court in Vienna has ruled that Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, who lives in Austria, cannot be extradited to the United States. The Vienna prosecutor's office plans to appeal the decision by December 16.
This was reported by Vienna Online.
Firtash's charges
The Ukrainian oligarch has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of corruption in connection with his titanium business in India. Firtash himself, who was arrested in Vienna in March 2014 and released on a record-breaking €125 million bail, denies the charges.
The oligarch's lawyers say that the prosecution is politically motivated by the Chicago prosecutor's office. After the Vienna prosecutor filed an appeal against the first decision of the Vienna Regional Court to refuse extradition, the Higher Regional Court of Vienna in February 2017 and the Supreme Court in June 2019 found the extradition admissible.
After the Supreme Court's decision, Firtash narrowly avoided being transferred to the United States, which could have been prevented only by applying for readmission. This application to reopen the entire extradition process was initially rejected by the Regional Court of Vienna in March 2022, but approved by the Higher Regional Court of Vienna in June 2023. Since then, the matter has been reviewed by the Vienna Regional Court, which has now again ruled in favor of Mr. Firtash.
As a reminder, the BES and the SSU raided the companies of oligarch Dmytro Firtash. He and the top managers of his companies involved in the criminal scheme were notified of suspicion.
Prior to that, Dmitry Firtash tried to obtain diplomatic status through his work at UNIDO, a UN agency that promotes the industrialization of third world countries. Belarus made him a "diplomat" to avoid extradition to the United States.