Nord Stream sabotage suspect wins reprieve in Italian court battle

A Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the 2022 attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines will not be handed over to the German authorities for the moment after Italy's top court on Wednesday upheld an appeal against his transfer, his lawyer said. (AFP/File)

• The Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest court, supported the defense’s argument
• The case will have to go before court again at a date that is still to be confirmed

ROME: A Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the 2022 attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines will not be handed over to the German authorities for the moment after Italy’s top court on Wednesday upheld an appeal against his transfer, his lawyer said.
The man, identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, was arrested in August near the Italian town of Rimini on a European warrant over the explosions that crippled the pipelines in the Baltic Sea supplying Russian gas to Germany.
The Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest court, supported the defense’s argument that there had been “incorrect legal classification of the facts underlying the European Arrest Warrant,” lawyer Nicola Canestrini said in a statement.
The case will have to go before court again at a date that is still to be confirmed.
“In light of today’s outcome, I will assess in the next few days whether the conditions exist to request my client’s release, as the legal basis for his detention has now been removed,” Canestrini added.
Described by both Moscow and the West as an act of sabotage, the explosions in September 2022 largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe, prompting a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy supplies on the continent.
No one has taken responsibility for the blasts and Ukraine has denied any role.
The suspect was part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, according to a statement issued by the German prosecutor’s office in August.
He faces charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of important structures.
He had taken his fight to the Court of Cassation after a previous ruling that he should be handed over to the German authorities.