Angela Bachevska22:14, 27.06.23

Dmytro Firtash has the status of “Advisor of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Belarus to International Organizations in Vienna” since 2021.

Scandalous Ukrainian oligarch  Dmytro Firtash is trying to get diplomatic status and immunity by working for UNIDO, one of the agencies in the UN structure, whose task is to promote the industrialization of post-colonial third world countries. Belarus made him a “diplomat” to protect him from extradition to the USA.

As DW writes , this follows from the text of the decision of the Higher Land Court of Vienna in criminal cases from June 14, which was at the disposal of the media. The document states that Dmytro Firtash has the status of “Advisor of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Belarus to International Organizations in Vienna” since 2021. And using this, the odious businessman invokes his diplomatic immunity, demanding a halt to extradition proceedings to the United States.

In order to prove that Firtash has the status of a diplomat and diplomatic immunity in the fall of 2021, his defense submitted to the court a legal examination prepared by one of the Western European professors of international law. In turn, the Ministry of Justice of Austria informed the court that Dmytro Firtash is not properly accredited to UNIDO. He also does not have the corresponding accreditation card from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Austria. This means that a businessman is not a person who is covered by the privileges of a diplomat, including diplomatic immunity. 

It is noted that the courts of previous instances did not recognize Firtash’s diplomatic immunity. However, the Higher Land Court of Vienna in criminal cases returned the case to the first instance and obliged the court to determine whether to recognize the diplomatic immunity of the Ukrainian businessman.

“At the time of the article’s publication, the Embassy of Belarus in Vienna did not answer DW’s questions about what exactly Dmytro Firtash does as an advisor to the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Belarus to international organizations in the Austrian capital and what exactly he is useful to the United Nations Organization for Industrial Development. A spokesman for Firtash’s lawyers told DW that they do not comment on legal proceedings, leaving unanswered the question of whether Firtash’s appointment as an adviser in Vienna was agreed with the ruler of Belarus, Oleksandr Lukashenko, or the government in Minsk, and on whose initiative the Ukrainian began working as an adviser to the Belarusian delegation. “, the authors of the material noted.

(C)UNIAN 2023