Austrian court rules that Ukrainian businessman Firtash cannot be extradited to the United States

VIENNA — An Austrian court has ruled that Ukrainian businessman Dymitro Firtash cannot be extradited to the United States. long-running legal saga which focuses on a corruption case linked to an alleged bribe-paying scheme in India.

The Vienna state court said late Tuesday that it had decided on Nov. 7 that extradition was not permitted, the Austrian Press Agency reported. Vienna prosecutors said they would appeal the decision and would have until December 16 to do so.

Firtash faces a U.S. indictment accusing him of conspiring to pay bribes in India to mine titanium, used in jet engines. He denies any wrongdoing.

In 2019, a federal judge in Chicago denied a motion to dismiss the indictment against Firtash, who argued that the United States had no jurisdiction over crimes in India. However, the judge ruled that was the case because any scheme would have impacted a Chicago-based company.

American aerospace company Boeing, based in Chicago, said it had considered doing business with Firtash but never followed through. He is not accused of any wrongdoing.

He was arrested in Austria in 2014 and later released on bail of 125 million euros ($131 million), kicking off the ongoing legal saga. A court in Vienna initially ruled against extradition on the grounds that the indictment was politically motivated.

In February 2017, a higher court rejected this reasoning as “insufficiently supported” and ruled that Firtash could be extradited. The Austrian Supreme Court of Justice upheld this decision in 2019.

The country’s justice minister approved the extradition at the time, but a Vienna court judge ruled it could only take place after a ruling on a defense appeal to reopen the case. The Vienna state court ruled against reopening the case in March 2022, but a higher court ruled last year to allow the reopening of the extradition proceedings, bringing to light new evidence.