SAPO head: Defendants in corruption cases choose Austria because extradition is not considered there
Oleksandr Klymenko (Photo: SAP / Facebook)

Austria has become the main destination for defendants in anti-corruption cases, as local courts do not actually consider Ukraine's requests for their extradition. About this said head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Oleksandr Klymenko in an interview with Ukrinform, answering the question about the extradition of suspects hiding abroad.

That is where most of the wanted people Ukraine is trying to return are now, said the head of the SAPO. According to him, when there is a chance for extradition, for example, to the UK, the suspects often move to Austria.

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Klymenko noted that Austrian courts usually reject Ukraine at the first hearing and do not even proceed to the merits of the case. The main argument is the war in Ukraine.

Another reason for the refusals, according to the head of the SAPO, is an old report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, which is referred to by Austrian courts.

The head of the anti-corruption prosecutor's office said that Ukraine had invited the Committee to visit. Its representatives came and inspected the detention centers in the west of the country. Now Ukraine is waiting for a new report.

According to the head of the SAPO, it is expected that the document will record good and safe conditions of detention and will be taken into account by the courts of those countries where the defendants in Ukrainian cases are hiding.

According to Klymenko, the issue of creating precedents for extradition from countries that have not extradited anyone to Ukraine before remains. He noted that the Security Service of Ukraine could help with this.

As an example, he cited the case when the SBU for the first time in the history of Ukraine returned a member of parliament from the United Arab Emirates in the case of the so-called russian influence on the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the SAPO. At the same time, Klymenko clarified that this did not happen under the extradition procedure.

From January 2022 to January 2026, according to the head of the SAPO, seven defendants in criminal cases were extradited to Ukraine for prosecution.

REFERENCE
"Extradition" is a form of international cooperation between states in the fight against crime, which consists in extradition of a person by one state at the request of another state for the purpose of subjecting that person to criminal prosecution or punishment in the territory of the requesting state.
  • september 11, 2025 Germany handed over Ukraine, a former traffic police inspector in Cherkasy region who had been hiding from the investigation for more than six years.
  • september 25, 2025 Germany issued Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office has convicted a person involved in a case of selling a communal land plot of more than 3 hectares in Zakarpattia at a reduced price.
АвстрияSAP