You're reading: Austrian Supreme Court to consider Firtash extradition after EU court ruling

A European Union court in Luxembourg denied Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash the right to elude legal jurisdiction in Austria where he faces extradition to the U.S. on corruption charges.

The EU Court of Justice ruled on Oct. 24 that his legal dispute, based on a human rights and freedoms charter, doesn’t have cause.

Firtash, 53, had attached his name to an existing case whereby three businessmen were challenging whether they could be tried in the EU if the charges against them had originated in Switzerland, a non-EU state.

“The court today decided that the relevant Austrian rules are compatible with EU legislation,” the EU Court of Justice’s spokesperson told the TSN channel. “This means that since EU laws are enforced in this case, the Austrian Supreme Court is not obliged to repeat the hearings of the persons in question, and as a result the Austrian authorities can pursue actions on crimes that are suspected to have been committed in Switzerland.”

Firtash’s lawyers also issued an exclusive statement to Interfax-Ukraine and Ukrainian News, an agency owned by the billionaire oligarch.

“The ruling of the European Court of Justice…does not alter the legal situation of our client Dmitry Firtash,” the statement read. “Following the decision of the Court of Justice of the EU, it is now expected that the petition of our client, pending before the Austrian Supreme Court, will commence…In conclusion, we remain strongly convinced of our client’s legal position and by the success of our appeal.”

Thus, the EU court ruling paves the way for the Austrian Supreme Court to hear Firtash’s appeal to challenge his extradition to the U.S. where a federal court in Chicago wants to try him. He is suspected of attempting to bribe Indian officials with $18.5 million to receive titanium production permits in a deal that involved aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing.

Firtash has vehemently denied the charges and has maintained his prosecution is an American political vendetta.

He has ties with U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman – Paul Manafort – who has been convicted of tax and bank fraud, as well as failure to report a foreign bank account. Manafort, who also masterminded Ukrainian ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s ascendancy to the nation’s highest office and advised many of his associates that included current lawmakers, still faces charges related to his foreign lobbying work and alleged witness tampering.

Firtash and Manafort tried doing business in 2008 in a million-dollar New York real estate deal that was eventually abandoned.

The Ternopil Oblast native made his fortune in the natural gas business by importing the blue fuel from Turkmenistan and Russia to Ukraine, often while monopolizing its supply to the country. He also moved into the nitrogen fertilizer by buying four plants in Ukraine that were mostly financed by Russian state-controlled banks. Firtash also controls a majority of Ukraine’s regional gas distribution companies and is the co-owner of Inter, an influential television channel with pro-Russian content.

After initially winning the first extradition case in Austria in 2015 after his arrest a year earlier, Firtash lost the appeal in February that was initiated by Austrian prosecutors. He subsequently challenged the ruling with the Supreme Court.

It, in turn, decided in December 2017 to wait for the EU Court of Justice’s ruling on Firtash before considering the appeal.

Should it rule against Firtash, the justice minister would have to sign off on the Supreme Court decision before the Ukrainian businessman’s extradition is final.
He has hired a top-flight legal team. It consists of former U.S. Attorney General Dan Webb, Lanny Davis and ex-U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff.