The Supreme Court of Austria on June 25 satisfied the request of the United States to extradite Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash. He faces trial in Chicago on bribery charges.
The decision to sign the extradition order rests with newly appointed Austrian Justice Minister Clemens Jabloner.
The court decision may be appealed. Two days earlier, on June 23, a Chicago judge refused to dismiss the charges against Firtash.
The oligarch’s attorneys Dan Webb and Lanny Davis from a U.S. law firm Davis Goldberg and Galper said in a statement they were disappointed with the ruling, and their client was innocent.
“He has never done business in the U.S., never visited the U.S., and had no knowledge of any plan to bribe Indian officials about an Indian titanium mine that never happened,” the statement read. “It is remarkable that in the entire indictment, U.S. prosecutors never charged Mr. Firtash – or anyone – with even paying a bribe – a fact largely unreported in U.S. media coverage.”
Firtash was arrested in Vienna in March 2014 and released on $174 million bail on the condition that he stay in Austria. He has been accused of bribing officials in India with $18.5 million for a permit to develop a titanium mine. He allegedly planned to sell titanium to Boeing, the giant American airplane manufacturer. Firtash has denied any wrongdoing.
The tycoon was once an ally of the disgraced Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and had business links to U.S. President Donald Trump’s ex-campaign manager, Paul Manafort. The construction deal Manafort pursued with Firtash failed. He still owns Group DF, a conglomerate that includes regional gas distribution companies, titanium and fertilizer plants in Ukraine. The group also controls several Ukrainian television channels, including one of the most watched stations, Inter.
Read more: The oligarch who can’t come home
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, two members of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform-For Life, which now polls second in the parliamentary race, attended the trial. Former chief of staff of Yanukovych’s administration, Serhiy Lovochkin, and former Chernivtsi governor Mykhailo Papiev said they came “to support their friend.”
