Dmytro Firtash loses extradition fight, and is arrested as well

An Austrian appeals court overturned a lower court ruling and has approved a U.S. Justice Department request to extradite Ukrainian tycoon Dmytro Firtash for trial in America, the BBC reports. Firtash, who was arrested in Vienna in 2014, won a round in his extradition fight in May 2015, when a court agreed that his arrest had been politically motivated, but the Justice Department has since provided more evidence. Barring a challenge in Austria’s supreme court by Firtash’s legal team, the next step will be a decision by Austrian justice minister Wolfgang Brandstetter.

However, as he was leaving the courthouse, Firtash was arrested again on separate charges laid by a Spanish court, Bloomberg reports. Firtash defense counsel Christian Hausmaninger stated that the new charges need to be examined and that the legal team’s actions would then take both cases into consideration.

News reports are also pointing to ties between Firtash and the circle around U.S. president Donald Trump, in particular former Trump campaign chairman and Viktor Yanukovych advisor Paul Manafort.

James Hydzik: With Firtash now entangled with both the U.S. and EU legal systems, the likelihood of his being free any time soon is quite low. Despite the alleged ties with Manafort, we do not expect the Trump administration to expend any political capital on dropping the Firtash case at this time, but it could be some time before he actually makes it to a U.S. court. Previously, President Trump’s name has not been directly associated with Firtash, and we have no reason to forecast whether it will on not in the future. As of now, Firtash could still embarrass the Ukrainian and Russian governments more than the Americans should he talk.