An Italian court has once again approved the extradition of a Ukrainian suspect to Germany in a high-profile case relating to the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the suspect's lawyer announced on Monday.
Serhiy K. is considered one of the alleged masterminds behind the 2022 attacks that damaged the gas pipelines running from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea.
German prosecutors accuse the 49-year-old of jointly causing an explosion and of anti-Constitutional sabotage and have requested his extradition to bring him to trial in Germany.
The decision by the Bologna court is the latest step in a complex judicial process over the extradition.
The court in Bologna approved Serhiy K.'s extradition in September, but the suspect's lawyer appealed to Italy's Supreme Court, which halted the extradition in mid-October due to procedural errors.
The Supreme Court then referred the case back to Bologna, where a newly composed court was tasked with reexamining the case.
However, following Monday's decision, the suspect's lawyer, Nicola Canestrini, announced that he would appeal once more to the Supreme Court in Rome.
The suspect was arrested while on holiday in Italy with his wife and children at the end of August. He has since been held in a high-security prison in northern Italy.
The attack on the former German-Russian prestige project drew international attention in September 2022.
Six months after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, several explosions were reported near the Danish island of Bornholm.
The explosions put both the Nord Stream 1 and the Nord Stream 2 pipelines out of operation. Four leaks were subsequently found on three of the four lines.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline previously carried gas directly from Russia to Germany. Nord Stream 2 did not enter service due to the war in Ukraine.
The Nord Stream project was a massive infrastructure project for Russia and Germany, but it was heavily criticized for giving Moscow too much influence over European energy supply.
