Berlin, Oct 27 (CTK correspondent) – Former Czech senator Alexandr Novak, who is facing an EU subsidies fraud charge, was extradited from Germany to the Czech Republic after ten months he spent in German custody, on Wednesday, German High Land Court court spokeswoman Gundula Fehns-Boer told CTK on Friday.
Novak also has the German citizenship.
The German police arrested Novak, 61, at the airport in Frankfurt on December 24, 2016 on the basis of a European arrest warrant.
Since Novak refused a simplified procedure, the High Land Court in Frankfurt was to deal with the admissibility of his extradition to the Czech Republic.
However, before the court made the decision, Novak changed his mind and voiced agreement with the simplified procedure, thanks to which he could be extradited.
“The prosecuted man was handed over to Czech authorities on October 25. 10, 2017,” Fehns-Boer told CTK on Friday.
Novak is one of the politicians, senior civil servants and businesspeople accused in the case of an extensive misuse of EU money within the Czech Regional Operational Programme (ROP) Northwest. It distributed EU subsidies in the Usti and Karlovy Vary northwestern regions.
Novak is now at liberty, state attorney Tomas Minx said, adding that Novak provided sufficient guarantees for his release and so he would be prosecuted out of custody.
According to the daily Pravo, Novak paid the bail of around 16 million crowns.
“At present, all the 26 defendants are being prosecuted in the Czech Republic,” Minx, from the Prague High State Attorney’s Office, said.
“The defendant, who was detained in Germany, was handed over to the Czech Republic. Since he provided a sufficient guarantee to the state attorney’s office and the court, as prescribed by the criminal law, he was released and his further prosecution will continue out of custody,” Minx said.
In the past, Novak was sentenced to four years in prison for having taken a 40-million-crown bribe. He was released in 2015 after serving a half of the sentence.
