international extradition
Question about extradition
<p>I saw a video about the protests taking place in Hong Kong just a few minutes ago and it took my attention for a while, so a question about a slightly  different scenario came in my mind and I'd like to ask for curiosity.</p>

<p>If an individual holds two citizenships, let's say A and B, and commits a serious crime in country A and manages to escape in country B in time, can country B extradite its own citizen to a foreign jurisdiction in which they happens to be also a citizen of?
Can a country extradite a citizen of theirs in a foreign country, regardless of the status of the individual in the jurisdiction he did commit the crime in? </p>

<h2>It depends on the law in country B</h2>

<p>Some countries allow extradition of their citizens and some don’t.</p>

<p>Because of the international principle of sovereignty, there is no external force requiring extradition from one country to another. In Austria, Brazil, People’s Republic of China, Republic of China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Russia, Switzerland and Syria, you cannot legally be extradited if you are a citizen of that country, since the extradition laws of those countries preclude extraditing citizens.</p>

<p>Whether or not an extradition request will be honored in the remaining cases depends on the laws of that country, especially whether the law allows vs. requires (vs. forbids) extradition. The primary consideration is whether a treaty exists between the sending and receiving countries: see <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/98-958.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this article</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Extradition treaties are in the nature of a contract and by operation
  of international law, “[a] state party to an extradition treaty is
  obligated to comply with the request of another state party to that
  treaty to arrest and deliver a person duly shown to be sought by that
  state (a) for trial on a charge of having committed a crime covered by
  the treaty within the jurisdiction of the requesting state, or (b) for
  punishment after conviction of such a crime and flight from that
  state, provided that none of the grounds for refusal to extradite set
  forth in [the treaty] is applicable.</p>
</blockquote>

<p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3181" rel="nofollow noreferrer">18 USC 3181</a> mandated that you may not be extradited from the US unless the receiving country has an extradition treaty with the US. In a limited set of contexts (crimes of violence against US nationals committed by persons who are not US citizens, nationals or LPRs), in lieu of a treaty and "in the exercise of comity", a person might also be extradited. <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3184" rel="nofollow noreferrer">This section</a> then says when extradition <em>may</em> be considered, and at what point in the proceeding, the extradition <em>shall</em> be performed. The <a href="https://app.uio.no/ub/ujur/oversatte-lover/data/lov-19750613-039-eng.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">law of extradition in Norway</a> is different (much more complex rules). Apart from the prohibition of extraditing Norwegian nationals (Norsk statsborger), there is a requirement that the crime be punishable in Norway by more than a year in prison; there is a prohibition against extraditing if there is a "conflict with basic humanitarian considerations, especially because of their age, health or other personal circumstances" (<a href="https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/1975-06-13-39" rel="nofollow noreferrer">current law</a>, art. 7)... and so on. Bolivia, on the other hand, allows extradition of its own nationals to the US, <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/206541.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">pursuant to their treaty with the US</a>, for a specific list of crimes:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>murder; voluntary manslaughter; kidnaping; aggravated assault; rape;
  sexual offenses involving children; armed robbery; offenses related to
  the illicit traffic in controlled substances; serious offenses related
  to terrorism; serious offenses related to organized criminal activity;
  fraud against the government or involving multiple victims;
  counterfeiting of currency; offenses related to the traffic in
  historical or archeological items; offenses punishable in both States
  by deprivation of liberty for a maximum period of at least ten years</p>
</blockquote>

<p>In principle, any nation could in their extradition treaty exclude extradition of certain dual nationals, if they had a political motivation to do so.</p>

<p>Extradition is mostly dependent on the relationship and existing treaty status between Country A and Country B or the local law of Country B.  I can say for sure that some extradition treaties don't differentiate between citizens, non-citizens and dual citizens, but I can't say categorically that none do.  It's not unheard of for extradition law to make this differentiation - for example, the United States allows for extradition of some persons accused of violence against a US citizen in another country, even without an exiting agreement <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3181" rel="nofollow noreferrer">USC 3181(b)</a>, but only if that person is not a citizen, national, or permanent resident of the United States.  </p>
