MILAN (AP) — Italy’s highest court on Wednesday approved extradition to Germany Ukrainian man suspected of setting off the explosions that did the damage Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany more than three years ago.
The defense attorney for 49-year-old Serhii Kuznietsova said his client would be handed over to German authorities in the next few days after the court of cassation rejected the defense’s latest appeal. Defense attorney Nicola Canestrini expressed confidence that his client will be acquitted in court.
The explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which carried Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea to Russia cut off supplies at the end of August 2022.
They also damaged the parallel gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, which was never commissioned because Germany has suspended the certification process shortly before Russia went to war with Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Kuznetsov was arrested on a European arrest warrant on August 21 at a campsite near the Adriatic coastal city of Rimini, where he and his family were on holiday.
German prosecutors say Kuznetsov organized and detonated at least four bombs weighing 14 to 27 kilograms (around 31 to 62 pounds) at a depth of 70 to 80 meters (230 feet to 263 feet) in the Baltic Sea near the Danish island of Bornholm on 26 September 26, documents extrad.
Kuznetsov denied participation in the explosions, saying that he was in Ukraine, where he served as an army captain at the time of the explosions.
Poland has blocked the issue another suspect to Germany.
