Austrian court makes final decision on extradition of Ukrainian oligarch Firtash to Spain
The Vienna Court of Appeals has decided to refuse Spain’s request for the extradition of Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash. The court's decision, which was reported by Levyy Bereg, is final and cannot be appealed.
The court thus confirmed the legality of the decision taken in October by the Higher Regional Court of Vienna.
The Court of Appeals decided to refuse Firtash’s extradition to Spain due to the absence of a crime, place and time.
"The Court ruled to deny the Spanish request for extradition because it does not meet the requirements for such documents, either on formal grounds or in substance," said Dmytro Firtash's lawyer, Dieter Bomdorfer.
The oligarch will remain in Austria pending the obtainment of a verdict from the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
In February 2017, the Vienna Superior Court of Justice allowed Firtash to be extradited to the United States on suspicion of laundering money and creating a criminal organization.
However, a warrant issued by Spain caused a delay. According to the law, if there are two parallel requests for extradition from different countries, then the decision to whom to give the accused is taken by the Minister of Justice. At the same time, the Minister's decision should only follow after the Court's decision on extradition.