Switzerland to ask U.S. for Lazarenko's extradition (04/25/99)

Switzerland to ask U.S. for Lazarenko's extradition

GENEVA - The Swiss judiciary is going to ask the United States for the extradition of Pavlo Lazarenko, Ukraine's former prime minister, investigating attorney Laurent Kasper-Ansermet told reporters in Geneva.

ITAR-TASS reported that Mr. Kasper-Ansermet, who is in charge of the Lazarenko case, last week issued an international warrant for the arrest of Mr. Lazarenko, who is in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in San Francisco.

With the warrant issued, Switzerland is in a position to send an extradition request within 40 days. Mr. Kasper-Ansermet visited Mr. Lazarenko in San Francisco on March 22, but Mr. Lazarenko refused to answer questions.

Mr. Lazarenko was detained in Switzerland on December 2, 1998, as he entered that country with a Panamanian passport. He was released from a Geneva prison on December 17 after he posted bail of 4 million francs ($2.7 million U.S.); the investigation into the case continued.

The international warrant for Mr. Lazarenko's arrest provides grounds for extending Mr. Lazarenko's custody. He cannot be extradited to Ukraine, where he is charged with major embezzlement during his tenure as prime minister, because there is no extradition accord between the United States and Ukraine. However, Switzerland and Ukraine have such an agreement, and Mr. Lazarenko could be extradited to Switzerland and then handed over to Ukraine, noted ITAR-TASS.

The Lazarenko case was expected to be a topic of discussion during the visit to Kyiv by Swiss Federal Prosecutor Carla del Ponte. RFE/RL Newsline reported that Ukraine's Procurator-General Mykhailo Potebenko and his Swiss counterpart met in Kyiv on April 19 to sign an agreement on fighting organized crime and money-laundering.

"We have prepared this agreement in a fairly short time, thanks to the joint investigation we're already conducting," the Swiss prosecutor commented, referring to the bilateral probe into the financial dealings of former Prime Minister Lazarenko.

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