Polish court blocks extradition of Ukrainian in Nord Stream investigation
A court in Poland on Friday ruled to deny extradition to Germany of a Ukrainian suspected of blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipeline, the Associated Press reported.
According to the agency, the Warsaw District Court also ruled that the Ukrainian citizen should be immediately released.
His lawyer, Timotheusz Paprocki, said before the hearing that "my client does not admit his guilt, he has not committed any crimes against Germany and does not understand why the German side has brought these charges against him." He also said he would argue that no Ukrainian should be held accountable for any actions directed against Russia.
Ukrainian citizen Volodymyr Zh. was arrested in Poland on September 30 on suspicion of blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipeline. He was wanted under a European arrest warrant issued by German intelligence.
The destruction of three of the four strands of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, designed to transport natural gas from the Russian Federation to Germany, occurred on September 26, 2022, at a depth of about 80 meters at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.