The media has lately reported some instances of individuals who have managed to avoid extradition to face prosecution. The common theme in these cases is a reluctance or even outright policy in some countries against extraditing their own citizens. Most shocking of all, in May 2012 various media outlets reported on the death in Germany of Klaas Carel Faber, a convicted World War II era war criminal whom Germany repeatedly refused to extradite. Faber, a Dutch citizen, received German citizenship in 1943 when he enlisted with the German Waffen SS after Germany occupied The Netherlands. Apparently part of the firing squad at the Westerbrook concentration camp, he was convicted by a Dutch court of war crimes in 1947. His sentence of death was commuted, and he thereafter escaped and fled to Germany. Germany, which has a policy against extraditing its citizens, refused various requests for his extradition. In 2006, extradition was denied on the grounds that the crimes alleged amounted to manslaughter and were beyond the statute of limitations. In January 2012, German authorities requested a German court to enforce the Dutch life sentence against Faber, but Faber died before the request was granted.1
Not surprising, in view of this precedent, Germany has also thus far refused to extradite the “Siemens 8″eight Siemens executives and German citizens indicted in the Southern District of New York on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other charges alleging bribery of Argentinean government officials.2 Siemens itself reached an $800 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission in the District of Columbia.3 Filings in the criminal case indicate that the Justice Department would seek extradition, but a May 2012 deadline for a status report to the court has since passed without any filings by the government. The government has not yet revealed how it plans to extradite these German citizens.
