Court of Appeal upholds decision to extradite Ukrainian to Germany in Nord Stream case
Photo: ANSA

The Italian Court of Appeal approved the extradition of a Ukrainian suspect to Germany in the case of sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in September 2022. The decision was confirmed by the detainee's lawyer. This was reported by Italian edition ANSA.

Sergei Kuznetsov was arrested on August 21 near Rimini on a European arrest warrant. He is accused of participating in the bombing of gas pipelines connecting Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea.

The defense of the Ukrainian, represented by lawyer Nicola Canestrini, announced a new appeal to the Supreme Court of Cassation. According to him, the proceedings "have serious procedural violations that jeopardize their legitimacy and compliance with the principles of due process.".

He noted that there are concerns about the possibility of using documents from proceedings that have already been invalidated by the cassation court.

The lawyer also pointed out that "procedural and prison safeguards in the requesting state" had not been effectively checked. In addition, the court did not take into account "aspects of functional immunity and the political nature of the alleged crime of sabotage".

on October 17, a Polish court refused to extradite Ukrainian Volodymyr Zhuravlev, suspected of blowing up Nord Stream, to Germany.

  • The destruction of three of the four lines of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, designed to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany, occurred on September 26, 2022. At the time, they were not working due to full-scale Russian aggression, but were filled with gas.
  • The EU immediately suspected deliberate sabotage and launched an investigation. Sweden, Denmark, and Germany launched separate investigations into the.

GermanyItalyextraditionnorth streamitaly