Vienna: An Austrian court approved yesterday the extradition of Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash (pictured) to the United States in a bribery case, overturning an earlier ruling that had said the US request was politically motivated.
Firtash, who denies the US bribery allegations, is a former supporter of Ukraine’s ousted pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich. Firtash made a fortune selling Russian gas to the Kiev government.
Minutes after Judge Leo Levnaic-Iwanski announced his exradition verdict to a packed courtroom, a spokeswoman for Austrian prosecutors said Firtash had been detained on a European arrest warrant based on a separate Spanish request.
The spokeswoman said it was too early to say if implementing the European warrant might impact the extradition proceedings. She could give no details on the Spanish request, though Spanish media said it related to suspected money laundering.
In the extradition case, Judge Levnaic-Iwanski said the United States had provided further documents to strengthen its case against Firtash since the previous Austrian court ruling. “This does not mean that somebody is being pre-judged as guilty, but rather that it will be decided in another country whether they are guilty or innocent,”
he said.
A US grand jury indicted Firtash in 2013, along with a member of India’s parliament and four others, on suspicion of bribing Indian government officials to gain access to minerals used to make titanium-based products.
Levnaic-Iwanski said the US charges against Firtash were entirely of a criminal nature and not related to politics. He added that the businessman, who was in the courtroom, would get a fair trial in the United States.
Speaking before yesterday’s verdict, Firtash’s lawyer Dieter Boehmdorfer reiterated the accusation that the United States was motivated in the case by political interests.
