Switzerland extends ban on cooperation with Russia to extradition

The position of the Federal Office of Justice of Switzerland about the “highest doubts” about Russia’s compliance with international legal obligations is now “interpreted broadly and also applies to Russian requests for extradition,” the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office told Vedomosti in response to a request from Vedomosti about the results of international cooperation in criminal cases in 2023. “It was with this wording that the Swiss authorities decided to refuse to extradite the person accused of attempted fraud on an especially large scale (his name was not disclosed. – Vedomosti),” the response of the supervisory authority says.

As specified in the Prosecutor General’s Office, without naming the exact date, earlier the Federal Office of Justice of Switzerland officially informed the Russian Embassy in Bern about the suspension of legal assistance to the Russian Federation. “By politically refusing to execute Russian requests for legal assistance, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice notified the Russian side of “the highest doubts that Russia will adhere to guarantees or other international legal obligations in connection with the legal assistance provided,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said. . Vedomosti sent a request to the Foreign Ministry.

In the Swiss register of court decisions studied by Vedomosti, such language is accompanied by accusations of Russia of violating the UN Charter, as well as obligations under the Budapest Memorandum of December 5, 1994 on security guarantees in connection with Ukraine’s accession to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

For example, such a formula is found in the decision of the Swiss Federal Court dated January 30, 2023 on the issue of legal assistance in the case of brothers Dmitry and Alexei Ananiev, accused of embezzling Promsvyazbank funds. The same document clarifies that in total, according to Russian requests, about 350 million francs were blocked in the country. But the owners still won’t get them back. As the court explained, despite the suspension of legal cooperation with Russia, earlier decisions to seize such assets should be upheld. They will still come in handy “if relations with the Russian Federation need to be normalized in the future.” In addition, the freezing of assets will allow Switzerland to initiate its own procedure for their confiscation in the future.

In total, from January to July 2023, the Swiss side denied Russia 19 requests for legal assistance in criminal cases for political reasons, according to the response of the Prosecutor General’s Office. “After the start of a special military operation to protect the civilian population of Donbass from genocide and other crimes of the Ukrainian regime, manifestations of Russophobia in a number of Western countries, primarily in the states of the European Union, reached such a level that the law enforcement agencies of these countries in some cases refused to cooperate with Russia in for the sake of international crime, ”the Prosecutor General’s Office commented on a similar position of colleagues.

In February 2023, the Russian Ambassador to Bern, Sergei Garmonin, told RIA Novosti that Switzerland, after February 24, 2022, was pursuing a “purely pro-Ukrainian line.” The country’s authorities adopted all packages of anti-Russian sanctions of the European Union, froze the assets of Russian citizens in the amount of 7.5 billion Swiss francs and are discussing the possibility of their confiscation. According to the diplomat, on the initiative of Bern, bilateral contacts in all areas, from political to cultural, have been reduced to a minimum. The country’s parliament is constantly discussing various options for circumventing the ban on the re-export of Swiss-made weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. Thanks to such actions, the Swiss Confederation finally lost the right to be called a neutral country, Garmonin concluded. “It is not surprising that Switzerland is on a par with the EU member states in the Russian list of unfriendly countries,” the diplomat stressed.

In addition to Switzerland, requests for legal assistance to the Russian side from January to July 2023 were denied by Latvia (4 cases), Liechtenstein and the United States (1 case each).

The US Department of Justice explained the refusal to execute a request for legal assistance in the case of organizing an illegal armed group and encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer by the possible damage to the sovereignty of the country. Similar wording was also used by the Latvian authorities. In Liechtenstein, with reference to the political motive of the criminal prosecution, they refused to help in the case of the theft of the property of Probusinessbank.

Extradition for political reasons was also denied in 2023. The Czech Republic (5 cases), Poland (4 cases), Austria (3 cases), Germany (3 cases), Italy (3 cases), Bulgaria (1 case), Cyprus (1 case), Romania (1 case) and Slovenia (1 case), follows from the data of the Prosecutor General’s Office.

The Czech Republic refused to extradite the defendants in criminal cases to Russia due to “incompatibility with obligations arising from other international treaties.” On this basis, Prague even refused to extradite a man convicted in 2009 for beating with infliction of grievous bodily harm (fractures of the base of the skull) and those accused of theft from heavy vehicles. The refusals of the authorities of Poland and Austria were justified by “a possible violation of the rights and freedoms of the persecuted person in the event of his extradition to law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation.” With similar formulations, Warsaw refused to extradite those accused of drug trafficking and tax evasion.

The Republic of Cyprus refused to grant the extradition request of the accused of illegal borrowing and willful bankruptcy due to “lack of confidence in the reliability of the previously provided guarantees of respect for the rights of the accused to a fair trial.” In Bulgaria, Germany, Italy and Romania, the position was explained by the risk of “subjecting the extradited person to inhuman and degrading treatment on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

“These decisions contradict the obligations of the parties under the European Convention on Extradition of December 13, 1957,” the Prosecutor General’s Office pointed out. “Thus, these countries continue the practice of non-fulfillment of their obligations directly stipulated by international treaties, which actually allows criminals to avoid criminal liability.”

In cases where extradition is denied, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office sends “letters of disagreement with the decisions taken and a request to inform the readiness to prosecute the accused, including in order to comply with the principle of inevitability of punishment,” to the competent authorities of the relevant countries. Then the international search for persons whose extradition has been refused continues on the territory of other Interpol member states.

Since the beginning of 2023, the authorities of foreign states have taken decisions to extradite 80 persons to Russia for criminal prosecution or execution of a sentence. For example, the Egyptian authorities granted Russia’s request for the extradition of a person accused of transferring a bribe to employees of the Russian Federal Security Service border guard in the Smolensk region for the unhindered movement of goods across the border with Belarus.

Two extraditions from Paraguay have been completed: a man accused of banditry in St. Petersburg in the late 1990s, as well as a Volgograd citizen who is charged with embezzlement in the amount of more than 11 million rubles. From Thailand extradited accused of organizing contract killings. In the absence of direct flights to Russia, extradition assistance is provided by Turkey and Brazil, for which separate requests are sent to these countries.