“There are no grounds for refusing extradition,” Advocate General Richard Pallain concluded Thursday before the Chambery Court of Appeal about Kostiantin Jevago, a wealthy businessman and former Ukrainian deputy. He was arrested on December 28 in Courchevel (Savoie) for “financial offences”. He is accused of embezzling $113 million from his Finance and Credit Bank.
The prosecution stressed that a “part of Ukraine” was not in a situation of “intensity conflict”, which “would allow” to dismiss this businessman.
“Ukraine is off the judicial track”
The lawyers of the former deputy – from 1998 to 2019 -, on the contrary, denounced the risks of sending him back to a country at war, “classified scarlet” by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on “all its territory”. “We do not send people back to a war zone,” insisted François Zimeray, while denouncing “the political nature” of the request from the Ukrainian authorities. “Ukraine is off the judicial track,” he summed up.
“I believe in French justice and I hope that you will hear the arguments of my lawyers”, declared at the end of the hearing the businessman who appeared free but under judicial control. The case was adjourned to March 30.