Nord Stream sabotage: a court in Poland determined the fate of a Ukrainian
Польський суд не видасть Німеччині українця. Фото - Reuters
A Polish court refused to extradite to Germany Ukrainian Volodymyr Zh., suspected of involvement in the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, and canceled his preventive measure in the form of temporary arrest.
This is reported by the publication Onet.pl.
The Ukrainian’s defense convinced the court that extradition to Germany is impossible for two reasons. As Volodymyr Zh.’s lawyer, lawyer Timoteush Paprocki, explained, his client will not receive a fair trial in Germany, since “German justice is not independent, and judges do not have material immunity.” He recalled a case in 2021, when one of the German judges was convicted for a decision made, and noted that the current prosecution of the Ukrainian is related to “the destruction of Germany’s critical infrastructure.”
The second argument for protection was functional immunity.
“If there is an armed conflict and military actions are being carried out, it is obvious that both armed forces and civilians participate in them. If the bodies of the European Union recognize Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 as Russian military infrastructure (and this follows from the decision of the EU Council), then where can one see any citizen of Ukraine taking actions that amount to “constitutional sabotage,” the lawyer emphasized.
The court agreed with the defense’s arguments, emphasizing that the issue at hand is not about proving the suspect’s guilt, but only about the legal grounds for executing the European Arrest Warrant.
“The request of the German authorities for the extradition of Volodymyr Z. should not be granted… The Polish court does not have any initial evidence in this case, since the German side, within the framework of the European arrest warrant, provided only very general information about the act, formally necessary in such proceedings,” the judge was quoted as saying by rp.pl.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk welcomed the court’s decision, writing on the social network X: “The Polish court refused to extradite to Germany a Ukrainian suspected of the Nord Stream 2 explosion and released him from custody. And that is fair. The case is closed.”
We will remind, earlier in the Polish city of Pruszków, police detained a Ukrainian whom Germany suspects of sabotage on the Nord Stream gas pipeline .