Italy to extradite pipeline blast suspect to Germany

Italy’s high appeals court docket has dominated {that a} Ukrainian man suspected of involvement in blowing up the Nord Stream fuel pipelines between Russia and Germany ought to be extradited to Berlin.

There, former Ukrainian navy officer Serhiy Kuznetsov will face a cost of anti-constitutional sabotage. He is because of be faraway from Italy below German police escort within the subsequent few days.

Prosecutors imagine Mr Kuznetsov coordinated and led a gaggle that planted explosives on the pipes deep beneath the Baltic Sea in 2022, although they haven’t disclosed any proof.

The case has severe implications for relations between Ukraine and Germany, which is the largest supply of navy assist for Kyiv in Europe.

Mr Kuznetsov’s lawyer mentioned his consumer “appears like a scapegoat” and is “very unhappy” that his authorities has not spoken out in his defence, and even confirmed that he was a serving soldier on the time of the blasts.

“If he carried out the assault, then he did so as a result of he was ordered to take action as a result of he was for positive a captain of the Ukrainian military,” Nicola Canestrini mentioned after Wednesday’s listening to.

The BBC has seen a replica of Mr Kuznetsov’s navy ID among the many court docket papers. He has not commented publicly on whether or not he was concerned within the explosions.

“The Ukrainian authorities is aware of precisely the place he was each day of September 2022,” his lawyer mentioned. “So, if he is harmless, why do not they are saying it? If he did it, why do not they are saying it? That is his query.”

The BBC has approached authorities and safety sources in Kyiv, however they haven’t commented.

Mr Kuznetsov was arrested in northern Italy in late August, at a glamping website close to town of Rimini the place he had booked in for a number of nights together with his spouse and two of their youngsters.

His passport particulars had been entered on-line at check-in, and in Italy that info is mechanically transferred to the carabinieri, the native police.

Later that night time, officers got here knocking on the household’s door.

A month later, a second Ukrainian suspect was detained at his house near Poland’s capital Warsaw on one other arrest warrant issued by Germany.

Volodymyr Zhuravlyov, an beginner deep-sea diver, has lived in Poland together with his household since simply earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

He was held in custody for 17 days, however a court docket then refused to extradite him.

The decide delivered a passionate speech, arguing that no Ukrainian may very well be prosecuted for what he characterised as a reliable act of self-defence in opposition to Russia’s “bloody and genocidal” invasion of Ukraine.

In Italy, farther from Ukraine, the temper and the politics are very totally different.

Mr Canestrini described the Italian attraction court docket’s ruling as a “nice disappointment”, however mentioned the struggle for his consumer would now transfer to Germany – with the goal of getting Mr Kuznetsov acquitted on the identical grounds.

Many Ukrainians think about whoever did destroy Nord Stream to be heroes for taking out an necessary income supply for Russia, and wrestle to grasp why Germany – a key ally of Ukraine – is pursuing this prosecution.

On Wednesday, one man stood exterior the palatial courthouse in Rome wrapped in a Ukrainian flag and holding a poster that learn: “Serhiy Kuznetsov is a defender, not a legal.”