A Ukrainian national suspected by Germany of being one of the masterminds of the 2022 Baltic Sea blasts cannot be extradited, Italian top court rules. Italy’s highest court ruled that a Ukrainian national suspected of involvement in the 2022 explosions that crippled the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea cannot be extradited to Germany.
The 2022 explosions near Denmark’s Bornholm island made global headlines after they rendered the pipelines inoperable.PoliticsGermany
Italy top court blocks Nord Stream suspect extradition
A Ukrainian national suspected by Germany of being one of the masterminds of the 2022 Baltic Sea blasts cannot be extradited, Italian top court rules.
View taken from a Danish F-16 interceptor of the Nord Stream 2 gas leak just south of Dueodde, Denmark
One of the alleged masterminds behind the sabotage was arrested in Italy at the end of August
Italy’s highest court ruled that a Ukrainian national suspected of involvement in the 2022 explosions that crippled the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea cannot be extradited to Germany.
The 2022 explosions near Denmark’s Bornholm island made global headlines after they rendered the pipelines inoperable.
What is the latest on the Nord Stream case?
The Court of Cassation in Rome is the final venue for the 49-year-old suspect to block extradition to Germany, where federal prosecutors want to charge him with jointly causing an explosion and committing anti-constitutional sabotage.
German investigators believe the man was one of the masterminds behind the underwater blasts that destroyed parts of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.
The suspect was arrested in late August while on holiday with his family on Italy’s Adriatic coast. A lower appeals court has already approved his extradition. If confirmed, he could be transferred to Germany by the end of next month and tried in Hamburg.Four leaks were later found in three of the four pipeline strands. Nord Stream 1 had been supplying gas to Germany, while Nord Stream 2 had never gone into service following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A second Ukrainian suspect — a 46-year-old trained diver — remains in custody in Poland, where authorities are still considering Germany’s request for extradition.
The Nord Stream attacks remain one of Europe’s most politically sensitive unsolved cases, with investigators in several countries pursuing separate but coordinated probes.
