Finland Times

The most significant agreement regulating extradition of persons outside the EU is governed by the European Convention on Extradition which besides the member states, also includes signatories such as Russia, among other countries.

In addition, Finland has bilateral agreements with, for example, the United States in matters extradition.

Petty crimes, however, do not lead to extradition.

The most important thing is that the suspected crime could lead to at least a year of imprisonment, Korhonen explained.

As a second requirement, the offense must be punishable in both countries.

Crimes considered for extradition normally are large cross-country crimes such as financial crimes.

Ministerial counsellor Hannu Taimisto explained that a fight between drunks by no means meet the criterion to be deemed an international crime.

“Normally, these are large cross-border crimes,” Taimisto said.

In most instances, suspects extradited from Finland are foreign nationals. Finland does not extradite its own citizens outside the EU.

Just over 50 Finnish and foreign national were handed over by EU states and Nordic countries last year.

This extradition process is less complicated. In a case where there is a request to extradite a Finn to other EU country, the person can choose whether to serve the sentence in

Finland or the member state in question.