Agency Report –
An Italian court has approved the extradition of a Ukrainian suspect to Germany in a case relating to the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the suspect’s lawyer announced on Monday.
Serhiy K is considered one of the alleged masterminds behind the 2022 attacks that damaged the gas pipelines running from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea.
German prosecutors accuse the 49-year-old of jointly causing an explosion and of anti-constitutional sabotage, and have requested his extradition in order to bring him to trial in Germany.
The decision by the Bologna court is the latest step in a complex judicial process over the extradition.
The court in Bologna already approved Serhiy K’s extradition in September, but the suspect’s lawyer brought the case before Italy’s Supreme Court, which halted the handover in mid-October due to procedural errors.
The Supreme Court then referred the case back to Bologna, where a newly composed court was tasked with re-examining the case.
However, following Monday’s decision, Sergiy K’s lawyer, Nicola Canestrini, announced that he would appeal once more to the Supreme Court in Rome.
The suspect was arrested while on holiday with his wife and children in Italy at the end of August. He has since been held in a high-security prison in northern Italy.
The attack on the former German-Russian prestige project drew international attention in September 2022.
Six months after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, several explosions were reported near the Danish island of Bornholm.
The explosions put both the Nord Stream 1 and the Nord Stream 2 pipelines out of operation. Four leaks were subsequently found on three of the four lines.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline had previously carried gas to Germany directly from Russia. Nord Stream 2 did not go into operation as a result of the war in Ukraine.
The Nord Stream project was a massive investment and infrastructure project for Russia and Germany, but it was heavily criticized for allowing Moscow too much influence over European energy supply.
By Christoph Sator and Robert Messer
