VIENNA, April 25 (Itar-Tass) Superior Land Court of Vienna might make a decision in the next few months on the extradition of ex-Chief of VEFK Bank, Alexander Gitelson, who is wanted in Russia as a suspect in several criminal cases. The court might need from one to several months to make a decision on the extradition, the court press service told Itar-Tass.
The time when a decision on the extradition might be made depends on whether Gitelson agrees to the extradition, it said. Besides, usually decisions on matters of extradition within the European Union are adopted sooner than on the extradition of defendants to other countries. In any case it is not a matter of a year or a little longer than that, a court spokesman said.
Gitelson was detained in Austria last week. After he was detained the Russian Investigative Committee(SK) has resumed an investigation into a criminal case opened against Gitelson who is accused in Russia of embezzlement of budgetary funds worth 1. 8 billion in the Leningrad region in 2006-2007.
Criminal proceedings against Gitelson will be resumed after his extradition to Russia, SK said.
Criminal proceedings against the banker were dropped because he had escaped from Russia; an international search for the banker was declared after he had fled Russia.