Pitr extradition could take up to one year

A Swiss official has said that the extradition of a fugitive Czech businessman, Tomáš Pitr, sentenced to five years for tax fraud and mismanagement of property in the Czech Republic, could take up to a year. A spokesman for the Swiss Justice Ministry made the statement on Thursday, a day after the Czech was taken into custody in St Moritz. Mr Pitr had been in hiding since 2007, when he failed to begin his jail sentence. Earlier this year, the 39-year-old received an additional six-year sentence in absentia for fraud and mismanagement of property that caused damage exceeding 700 million crowns to a number of state-controlled companies. Switzerland has called on Czech authorities to provide an official request for Pitr's extradition and the Czech Justice Ministry is expected to do so on Thursday. Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil, meanwhile, said he believed there was a fifty/fifty chance extradition would be successful.