Do, Mai 30th 2024
Switzerland saw a 25% increase in extradition requests from foreign states in 2023, with over 430 submissions.
Last year, foreign states submitted 430 extradition requests to Switzerland, representing an increase of over a quarter compared to 2022. These figures are from the 2023 activity report on international mutual legal assistance.
Conversely, Switzerland submitted over 200 extradition requests to foreign countries, as reported by the Federal Office of Justice (FOJ). Almost 30,000 searches were conducted in Switzerland at the request of foreign states, about 1,500 more than in 2022. Switzerland submitted around 200 search requests to foreign countries. In the previous year, 48 prisoners were extradited abroad, while twelve prisoners were brought to Switzerland.
In one notable case, Ecuador requested the extradition of a 58-year-old Ecuadorian national suspected of abusing two girls aged seven and nine. Following diplomatic guarantees regarding procedural rights and prison conditions, the man was arrested in the canton of Vaud and handed over to Ecuadorian authorities at Zurich airport in October 2023.
Another case involved a Swiss national arrested in Bangkok in May 2023 while checking in for a flight to Vietnam. He was extradited to Switzerland three months later for violating the Narcotics Act. In 2016, he had organized two shipments of at least 2,000 methamphetamine pills to Switzerland.
©Keystone/SDA
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