Switzerland received more than 400 extradition requests last year
Forty-eight prisoners were extradited last year, while 12 were brought to Switzerland.
Keystone / Michael Buholzer
Switzerland received 430 requests for the extradition of criminals last year, an increase of over a quarter compared to 2022.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Do you want to read our weekly top stories? Subscribe here.
Meanwhile, Switzerland submitted more than 200 extradition requests to other countries, the justice ministry said on Thursday.
Almost 30,000 searches were carried out in Switzerland at the request of foreign states, around 1,500 more than in 2022; while Switzerland submitted around 200 search requests to other countries. Forty-eight prisoners were extradited last year, while 12 were brought to Switzerland.
The figures are from the 2023 activity report on international mutual judicial assistance.
In one case, according to the report, Ecuador requested Switzerland’s extradition of an Ecuadorian national: a 58-year-old man suspected of having abused two girls, aged seven and nine.
Following the assurance of diplomatic guarantees regarding procedural rights, detention conditions and disclosure of the detention location, the man was arrested at his place of residence in canton Vaud and handed over to the Ecuadorian authorities at Zurich Airport in October 2023.
In May 2023, a Swiss national was arrested at an airport in Bangkok while checking in for a flight to Vietnam. Three months later, he was extradited to Switzerland. The man was the subject of an international alert for offences under the Narcotics Act, having organised two deliveries of at least 2,000 methamphetamine pills to Switzerland in 2016.
Adapted from German by DeepL/kp/ts
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Popular Stories
More
Foreign affairs
What Trump’s return or a new Harris administration would mean for Switzerland
Direct trains to run from Zurich to Florence and Livorno
This content was published on
The Swiss Federal Railways and Trenitalia will offer direct trains from Zurich to Florence and Livorno and vice versa from 2026.
Number of Swiss armed forces exceeds specified limit
This content was published on
The Swiss armed forces had an effective headcount of around 147,000 as of March 1, 2024. This exceeds the upper limit of 140,000 specified in the army organisation by 5%.
More than 400,000 cross-border commuters now work in Switzerland
This content was published on
More than half of all cross-border commuters were resident in France (around 57%). Large proportions also lived in Italy (23%) and Germany (around 16%).
Amherd and von der Leyen discuss ongoing Swiss-EU negotiations
This content was published on
Swiss President Viola Amherd and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have met and talked about the ongoing negotiations between Bern and Brussels.
This content was published on
One million francs, 34 million euros and around 830 kilos of gold: this is the fortune that two Swiss nationals are accused of having moved across borders for at least four years.
Girls in female-dominated classes earn more later on
This content was published on
At the age of 30, women from school classes with a 55% share of girls earn $350 more per year than women from classes with a 45% share of girls.
This content was published on
Geneva-based luxury goods group Richemont reported a downturn in performance for the first half of its 2024/25 financial year. Both sales and profit declined.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.