Overview
- Poland’s District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw has the Ukrainian filing and will pass it to a court with its assessment once checks are completed.
- Officials will verify formal compliance with the 1957 European Convention on Extradition and examine possible bars such as Polish investigations or asylum proceedings.
- The detainee is widely reported as Alexander Butiagin of the State Hermitage Museum, who was arrested in Warsaw on December 4 during a European lecture tour.
- Prosecutors are expected to seek an extension of his temporary custody, which currently expires on January 13, with the final extradition decision to be made by a court.
- Ukraine accuses him of leading unauthorized digs in occupied Crimea, including at Myrmekion, with alleged cultural damage estimated at 200 million hryvnia and a potential sentence of up to 10 years.