Reform of international legal assistance: Against cloak-and-dagger extraditions

Legal protection against extradition should be improved. The Bundestag is expected to decide this this Thursday evening. This is intended to prevent night-and-dagger deliveries like Maja T.'s. The Left and the Greens welcome this, but have further suggestions.

An amendment to the law on international legal assistance (IRG) is planned, which will overall strengthen the legal status of those affected. Among other things, the person to be extradited is entitled for the first time to a hearing before the Higher Regional Court, which decides on the admissibility of the extradition. In the Legal Affairs Committee at the beginning of November, the Left and the Left also approved the bill; the Greens abstained and only the AfD voted against it.

The IRG amendment was planned anyway, but was under the impression of the illegal extradition of the non-binary anti-fascist Maja T. to Hungary in June 2024. The extradition was already carried out while the Federal Constitutional Court was still discussing an urgent application. When Karlsruhe tried to stop the extradition with an urgent decision, Maja T. was already in Hungary. In February 2025, the Federal Constitutional Court subsequently determined that the extradition was unconstitutional because the situation of non-binary people in the Hungarian prison system had not been sufficiently examined beforehand.

The federal government's draft law aims to significantly improve legal protection against extraditions. For the first time, an appeal is now possible against the fundamental decision of the Higher Regional Court (OLG) that extradition is permissible. The legal profession had been demanding this for a long time. So far, only the Federal Constitutional Court could be appealed.

After the OLG decision, there should be one week to file an appeal. No delivery is possible during this time. For extraditions to non-EU countries, there should be another week to justify the appeal. The coalition responded to criticism from experts. The extradition is then blocked until a decision is made. The Greens and the Left generally even demand two weeks to give reasons.

However, the Higher Regional Court will decide on the appeal with the same three judges as it did on the admissibility of extradition. The Greens had called for at least five judges. The Left demanded a decision by a “higher-level judiciary”. That would be the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe.

At the hearing on the draft law at the beginning of October, Anna Oehmichen from the German Bar Association criticized the fact that only a “light legal remedy” was being introduced. It is hardly to be expected that the same judges will decide differently as an appeal authority than before. Holger Matt from the Federal Bar Association assumed that most controversial extradition proceedings would continue to end up at the Federal Constitutional Court in the future.