Elvira Lazarenko, an associate partner at Barristers, LLC, explained to students at the LHS School of Criminal Practice what extradition is

The lecturer noted that extradition is a form of international cooperation involving the surrender of a person to a state whose competent authorities are seeking that person for the purpose of bringing them to criminal liability or enforcing a sentence.

In Ukraine, the central authorities responsible for the surrender of persons are the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine—for the surrender (extradition) of suspects and defendants in criminal proceedings during the pretrial investigation— and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine—for the surrender (extradition) of defendants or convicted persons in criminal proceedings during trial or the enforcement of a sentence.

The speaker described the stages of the extradition process. The first stage is the detention of a person wanted by a foreign state. Of course, this takes place in accordance with the requirements of Articles 206–208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, but it has certain specific features. The main condition for detaining a person is that they are on an international wanted list. The arrest of a person on the territory of Ukraine is carried out by an authorized official, who notifies the relevant regional prosecutor’s office of the arrest; the prosecutor’s office, in turn, forwards information about the arrest to the relevant central authority of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine within 60 hours of the arrest. This authority then informs the competent authority of the foreign state of the measures taken within three days.

The next stage involves applying a preventive measure to the detained person who is wanted by a foreign state. According to the lecturer, a suspect may be subject to arrest, which can be either temporary or for the purpose of extradition. The difference between them is that, prior to receiving a request for the person’s extradition, only temporary arrest may be applied; however, after receiving such a request, the prosecutor applies to the investigating judge with a motion to impose extradition arrest. These stages are followed by the following: submission of a request for the person’s extradition, an extradition review, a decision to grant or deny extradition to a foreign state, and the actual transfer of the person to the requesting state.

Elvira Lazarenko stated that in order to order pretrial detention, the prosecutor must provide the court with a specific list of documents, including a document verifying the detainee’s identity. In other words, if the detainee did not have a passport or any other document containing the necessary information on their person, the court must deny the motion to impose pretrial detention. However, practice shows that this does not always happen. It is essential to have proper identification and the appropriate forms of documentation containing information about the person’s commission of a crime on the territory of a foreign state, the imposition of a preventive measure against them by a competent authority of that foreign state, as well as the arrest report.

The lecturer added that there are certain grounds for postponing a person’s extradition, such as the person’s application to the Migration Service for refugee status and, if certain grounds exist, filing a petition with the European Court of Human Rights requesting interim measures in the form of an order directing the Ukrainian government not to extradite the person until the court has considered the case.