One of these could be if the person in question is not on Luxembourgish territory. CSV MP Laurent Mosar wanted to know if the government would not be able to protect its citizens from extradition in such a situation.
He cited the example of Frank Schneider, who was arrested for cryptocurrency fraud in France, his country of residence, upon request from the US authorities. He now risks extradition to the US. This would not be the case had he resided in Luxembourg.
Despite freedom of movement within the EU, citizens do not have the same rights in different countries.
Minister for Justice Sam Tanson said she understood this argument, as it was indeed strange “that Luxembourgers have a different kind of protection in Luxembourg than another European country. But I am not aware of planned changes to this law. This would have to happen on a European level, in the context of the European arrest mandate. The rule would have to be applied in the same way across all EU countries.”
Laurent Mosar asked again if the Luxembourgish government should not do everything possible to avoid such extraditions. After all, Frank Schneider faces 40 years of prison in the US, compared to 6 years here or in France.
Sam Tanson responded:
“We have a separation of powers. The only option here would be to intervene with legal authorities and tell them to take a different decision. The prosecution is the one making the decision here, for a Luxembourg citizen. And this is the decision they made, on the basis of this case.”
While there had been exchanges with public prosecutors, there was no other way here. Anything else would be an intervention of politics in legal matters, concluded the minister.
