Germany weighs extraditing Portnov killing suspect
REUTERS/Nacho Doce
German authorities are considering the extradition of a
suspect arrested in the killing of Andriy
Portnov, Cologne prosecutor’s office told public broadcaster Deutsche Welle
on Feb. 26.
The prosecutor’s office declined to provide details, saying the matter involves an ongoing international extradition procedure. It also would not say to which country the suspect might be extradited.
Spain’s National Police said Feb. 25 that they had arrested a suspect in Heinsberg, Germany, with the cooperation of a special-operations unit from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, or BKA). The Cologne prosecutor’s office, however, said BKA officers did not carry out the arrest.
Portnov, 51, a former senior aide to Ukraine’s fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych, was killed in Madrid on May 21, 2025. Spanish media reported at the time that an unknown armed man shot him at the gates of the American School in Pozuelo de Alarcón, an upscale Madrid suburb.
On May 28, 2025, Ukrainian media reported that Portnov met
with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his senior advisers during his May 17–19
visit to Kyiv.
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