December 5, 2025 – This week, two of our clients were released from extradition detention. In extradition proceedings in Düsseldorf (GenStA 4 AuslA 223/25), we demonstrated that  there are alternatives to extradition. In Munich (1 OAus 219/25), an asylum decision from France helped the client to have the extradition warrant lifted and then also to have the extradition proceedings terminated.

German Lawyer on extradition custody

However, during the course of extradition proceedings in Germany, most “persecuted” persons are held in extradition custody here. The legal requirements for this can be found in Sections 15 and 16 of the Act on International Legal Assistance (IRG). Extradition detention is ordered if the Higher Regional Court sees a risk that the persecuted person will flee the extradition proceedings or the execution of the extradition if no extradition detention is ordered. This is almost always the case in German Higher Regional Courts when someone is arrested here on the basis of an international arrest warrant. Therefore, in “normal cases,” extradition detention is ordered after arrest, and it takes a lot to change the detention situation of the persecuted person in the short term. It is not impossible, but it takes a lot.

According to the law, one of the legal requirements for extradition detention is that the Higher Regional Court may suspend the execution of the extradition warrant pursuant to Section 25 IRG if less drastic measures guarantee that the purpose of extradition detention will also be achieved by these less drastic measures. This means that the “persecuted” person must even be released from extradition detention if it is ensured that suitable conditions guarantee that he or she will remain available for the extradition proceedings.

The most common conditions include the deposit of identity documents, weekly to daily reporting requirements to the police, and the deposit of a security deposit. Such measures strengthen the personal and social ties of the persecuted person and may, under certain circumstances, allow the extradition arrest warrant to be suspended.

German Lawyer on the pivotal point of the extradition arrest warrant

The pivotal point of the extradition arrest warrant is the “risk of absconding,” i.e., the risk that the person being prosecuted will evade German justice if no extradition detention is ordered. The key to a successful defense is to eliminate the risk of flight, which cannot be based by a Higher Regional Court solely on the high sentence expected in the prosecuting state, as is very often assumed by German courts. This is also the subject of the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court (decision of January 23, 2025 – 2 BvR 5/25) that I obtained at the beginning of this year. The case concerned a European arrest warrant issued by the court in Naples, Italy, and the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that arrest warrants from other EU states cannot automatically be enforced in Germany. The conflict between the fundamental right of the individual to personal freedom and the exchange of legal assistance between states must always be taken into account. The courts responsible for detention matters must deal in detail with the conditions for the enforcement of detention and justify their decisions accordingly.

However, depositing identification documents, weekly to daily reporting requirements to the police, and posting bail are only one approach to achieving exemption from extradition detention in Germany.

German Extradition-Lawyer on the deciciv approach

In my view, the most important approach is now to defend the case itself. The defense must demonstrate to the Higher Regional Court as early as possible that, at the end of the proceedings, extradition to the prosecuting state is not actually an option. In the many cases in which I have obtained exemption from extradition detention, the Higher Regional Court has ultimately never declared extradition to be admissible. And the closer the Higher Regional Court comes to this conclusion, the closer the prosecuted person comes to a suspension of the extradition detention order.