A Ukrainian suspected in the case of the explosions that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany more than three years ago has been taken into custody in Germany, AP reports, writes UNN.
Details
A federal court judge in Karlsruhe on Friday issued an arrest warrant for 49-year-old Ukrainian Serhiy Kuznetsov and ordered him held in custody, federal prosecutors said.
German prosecutors said they suspect him of "causing explosions, unconstitutional sabotage, and destruction of structures."
The suspects used a yacht that departed from the German port of Rostock, rented from a German company with forged documents and through intermediaries, prosecutors said.
"Kuznetsov denies his involvement in the explosions, stating that he was in Ukraine, where he served as an army captain at the time of the explosions," the report says.
He arrived in Germany on Thursday after Italy's Supreme Court approved his extradition on November 19. He was detained on a European arrest warrant on August 21 at a campsite near the city of Rimini on the Adriatic coast in Italy, where he was vacationing with his family.
Ukrainian suspect in Nord Stream bombing case extradited to Germany27.11.25, 16:19 • [views_2754]
Addition
Underwater explosions on September 26, 2022, damaged the pipelines built to transport Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
In October, a Polish court blocked the extradition to Germany of another Ukrainian suspected of involvement in the Nord Stream case in 2022 and ordered his release.
The Polish judge stated that the attack on the gas pipelines should be understood as an act of war in a "just war" and therefore not subject to criminal liability by an individual. The Italian court that decided on Kuznetsov's extradition did not accept this argument.