A Ukrainian man suspected of sabotage against the Nord Stream pipelines was extradited to Germany on Thursday after being detained in Italy since August, the German federal prosecutor's office said, according to AFP.
- The accused was transferred from Italy today. He is scheduled to appear before a judge at the federal court in Karlsruhe tomorrow, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said.
The Italian Supreme Court approved his extradition on Wednesday last week. The Ukrainian man accused of sabotage has been referred to by German police as "Serhii K.".
He was arrested in August near the Italian coastal town of Rimini on the basis of a European arrest warrant. The man is a former officer in the Ukrainian military.
The Ukrainian is suspected of having coordinated sabotage against the two Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which run in the Baltic Sea between Germany and Russia, in late September 2022.
Together with several accomplices, he placed explosive charges on the two pipelines near Bornholm, according to the German prosecutor's office. The accused Ukrainian denies having played a role in the sabotage.
The case has also been investigated by both Danish and Swedish police. These investigations were closed in February last year.
The German authorities also want another Ukrainian extradited in the case. He is referred to as "Volodymyr Z." and has been arrested in Poland. Earlier in October, however, a Polish court ruled that the man should not be extradited for prosecution in Germany.
Although the issue of extradition is to be decided solely by the courts, Poland's Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, has previously intervened in the matter and said that extradition of "Volodymyr Z." would not be in Poland's interest.
According to the Prime Minister, the problem is not that the pipelines were blown up, but that they were even built in the first place.
/ritzau/
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