France Expects Captured Fugitive to Be Handed Over Soon

PARIS — French authorities said Sunday that they were confident Germany would soon hand over a fugitive French businessman wanted in a major corruption scandal after his unexpected arrest during a stopover in Frankfurt.

In a move that caught French officials by surprise, German police seized former financier Alfred Sirven, 74, on Saturday as he stepped off a plane from the Philippines, where he was arrested after an 11-month chase in connection with a wide-ranging probe.

Amid widespread criticism over France’s handling of the case, senior officials insisted on Sunday that the arrest in Germany was only a minor hiccup and they expected Sirven to be handed over as early as today.

Trial testimony has pointed to Sirven, the former No. 2 executive of the French company Elf Aquitaine, as being at the center of an alleged system of misappropriating about $400 million for use in kickbacks and slush funds.