Extradition of Claudia Hoerig from Brazil could take a year

RELATED: Claudia Hoerig had history of marital problems

By ED RUNYAN

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

It could be a while before local and U.S. authorities know when Claudia Hoerig will be brought back to the United States to stand trial in the 2007 killing of her husband, Karl.

Michael Zetts, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, said Thursday the Brazilian Supreme Court “still has to approve her extradition. Those proceedings could take as long as a year or as short as mere weeks.

“That’s why Congressman Ryan continues to keep the pressure on the Brazilian government to move those proceedings quickly and why he won’t stop fighting for Karl Hoerig until Claudia is standing in a Trumbull County courtroom.”

Histories culled from news reports involving others who have gone through the extradition process seem to reinforce the assertion that extradition can take days or quite a few months.

A document written to the U.S. Justice Department in August 2014 by the Brazilian Ministry of Justice regarding Claudia Hoerig said the process for extraditing her to the U.S. would begin as soon as questions regarding her citizenship were resolved. The document says this type of extradition is also handled by the Brazilian Supreme Court.

The Brazilian Supreme Court website says the court’s purpose is to interpret the 1988 Brazilian Constitution, “extradition requested by [a] foreign state,” and to judge “common criminal offenses against the President of the Republic, the Vice-President, the members of the National Congress, the Supreme Court’s Justices and the Attorney-General of [the] Republic.”

The website for the International Law Office, which is associated with the International Bar Association, lays out some of the issues the Brazilian Supreme Court will consider in an extradition request.

They include an evaluation of whether the accused is a political refugee at risk of torture or death; whether the crimes alleged are also considered crimes in Brazil; whether there is probable cause for the charge and arrest order; and whether the Brazilian penal code applies a milder penalty to the crime.

On the final point, if the country seeking extradition has a more strict punishment than Brazil, the country seeking extradition must accept a reduction in the penalty to bring it into line with Brazilian standards, the site says.

For example, Brazil does not have a death penalty, and prison sentences cannot exceed 30 years, the International Law Office says.

The charge facing Hoerig in Trumbull County carries a possible life prison sentence with parole eligibility after 20, 25 or 30 years in prison.

Two recent examples of extradition from Brazil had drastically different outcomes.

In February 2015, convicted murderer Phillip Smith of New Zealand, who had fled to Brazil, sent an email to a radio station back home expressing the opinion that he was safe in Brazil.

“I conducted some research, and it is highly unlikely that I will be returned to New Zealand under the national law of my host country,” he said, according to BBC news.

He was, he imagined, the latest in a long line of successful fugitives to make their home in Brazil, including train robber Ronnie Biggs and Josef Mengele, the Nazi concentration-camp doctor, BBC said.

“However, times have changed. Recently the authorities have shown a new determination to arrest and extradite foreign criminals or those wanted by the authorities to rid the country of its reputation as a fugitive’s paradise,” the report said.

Soon after sending the email, members of the Brazilian Federal Police arrested Smith, and he was back in New Zealand within a few days.

“All of us at the federal police have been working tirelessly to ensure Brazil will not be a destination of choice for international fugitives,” Valdecy Urquiza Jr., head of International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) in Brazil, told the BBC.

By contrast, the Brazilian Supreme Court approved the extradition of fugitive Michael Lynn back to Ireland in December 2014, but he is apparently still in Brazil, according to reporting in two Irish publications, The Irish Times and The Independent.

Lynn is a businessman who faces 33 charges in Ireland related to the collapse of his property empire, according to The Independent. He fled Ireland in 2007 with huge debts.

When the court agreed to extradite him in December 2014, it imposed conditions on its decision, which the Irish government must accept for the extradition to go ahead, the Irish Times reported.

Lynn can be tried only for theft, and his time in detention in Brazil should count against any possible jail sentence in Ireland, the paper said.

But after the December 2014 Supreme Court decision, Lynn sought clarification of the court’s decision in an apparent bid to have it overturned, and Lynn was held in the infamous Cotel prison in Brazil, The Independent said.

Those issues were resolved in February 2016 with a minor change to the 2014 ruling, The Irish Times said. But the clarifications had to be published in the court’s official journal, and it would likely take a few more months after that for him to be handed over to Irish authorities, The Irish Times said.

There is no indication in the Irish media that Lynn has returned to Ireland.