Дмитрий Фирташ. Фото: dmitryfirtash.com
Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash was able to avoid extradition from Austria to the United States thanks to his status as a Belarusian diplomat and immunity from criminal prosecution. A court in Vienna brought an end to proceedings that had continued since 2014.
In 2024, the Higher Regional Court of Vienna ruled that Firtash should not be extradited to the United States because he enjoyed immunity from criminal prosecution as a Belarusian diplomat. Since 2021, the oligarch has been listed as an adviser to Belarus’s Permanent Representation to the international organizations in Vienna. In the same year, a note was delivered to the headquarters of UNIDO (the United Nations Industrial Development Organization) delegating Firtash as a representative to the UN industrial development agency.
The Vienna prosecutor’s office tried to challenge that ruling. The judge gave the prosecutor’s office four weeks, rather than the two provided for by law, to challenge the decision, but the Supreme Court later found that such an extension of the deadline was unlawful. As a result, the prosecutor’s office missed the deadline for filing an appeal in November 2024, Die Presse wrote.
The court’s ruling entered into force in December 2025. Austria’s Foreign Ministry and UNIDO denied Firtash formal accreditation, but the court proceeded from the view that the notes sent by the Belarusian embassy in 2021, appointing Firtash as an adviser to Belarus’s Permanent Representation to UNIDO, automatically gave him diplomatic immunity. In his ruling, the judge referred to the “constitutionally enshrined principle of the separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive”, arguing that the court was not legally obliged to adhere to the ministry’s position.
The prosecutor’s office tried to change the deadline for filing an appeal, but on March 6 the Higher Regional Court of Vienna rejected the motion.
Firtash was detained in Austria in 2014 at the request of the United States, but was released on bail. Since then, Firtash has been challenging extradition to the United States. The United States accuses him of paying bribes in India in order to obtain permission to mine titanium raw materials.