Overview
- Germany’s Federal Court of Justice issued an arrest warrant for 49-year-old Serhii Kuznietsov and ordered him held in custody after his arrival.
- Kuznietsov was flown to Germany on Thursday following Italy’s highest court approving his extradition on Nov. 19, after his August arrest near Rimini on a European warrant.
- Federal prosecutors say he belonged to a group that planted explosive devices near Bornholm and accuse him of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of important structures.
- Prosecutors say the group used a yacht hired from Rostock with forged identities, while Kuznietsov denies involvement and says he was serving as a Ukrainian army captain at the time.
- A Polish court in October refused to extradite a different Ukrainian suspect, calling the act a military operation in a “just war,” a rationale Italian judges did not accept in Kuznietsov’s case.