A Canadian judge has turned down a last-minute appeal by a German businessman against his extradition¹ on corruption² charges.

一位加拿大法官拒绝了一位获贪污指控德国商人的最后引渡申请。

Karleinz Schreiber has been fighting extradition for almost 10 years

Karlheinz Schreiber, 75, is wanted for tax evasion³（逃税，漏税）, bribery⁴ and fraud（欺诈，欺骗） in Germany, and has been fighting extradition（引渡逃犯） for nearly 10 years.

He figured in a fund-raising scandal involving ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Canadian media say Mr Schreiber, who denies wrongdoing, was on a flight headed for Germany as of Sunday night.

He had appealed at a court in Ontario against his imminent⁵（逼近的，即将发生的） extradition.

Canadian case

Mr Schreiber is accused in Germany of evading⁶ taxes on millions of dollars from commissions for arms deals.

He was also at the centre of a scandal surrounding the funding of Helmut Kohl's Christian⁷ Democrat⁸ Party, the CDU.

The scandal began with the emergence⁹ of a series of undeclared contributions given by Mr Schreiber.

Mr Schreiber, who has both German and Canadian citizenship¹⁰, was arrested under a German warrant in Canada in 1999. He was released on bail¹¹ in 2007.

In a separate, Canadian case, he has been testifying at a public inquiry¹² about his financial dealings with that country's former Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney.

Mr Mulroney has acknowledged taking C$225,000 (£125,000) from Mr Schreiber in return for promoting a project for a German company, though he denies Mr Schreiber's claim that the money was exchanged while he was still in office.

Public hearings on the case ended last week.