By Marek Strzelecki and Anna Koper
WARSAW (Reuters) -A Polish court on Friday ruled against handing over a Ukrainian suspect wanted by Germany in connection with the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions and ordered his immediate release from detention.
Although Warsaw had said the decision over whether Volodymyr Z. should be transferred to Germany was one for the courts alone, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said earlier this month that handing him over was not in Poland’s interest.
Tusk said the problem was not that the undersea pipelines, which run from Russia to Germany, were blown up in September 2022, but that they were built at all.
“The person being prosecuted, if he was the perpetrator, is entitled to functional immunity, which covers an act committed in connection with his activities for the Ukrainian state,” judge Dariusz Lubowski said in his verdict that ruled that the German application was not admissible.
“If Ukraine was indeed the organiser of this act of aggression, then only Ukraine can be held responsible for this event.”
Ukraine has denied involvement in the explosions.
“Polish court denied extradition to Germany of a Ukrainian national…And rightly so. The case is closed,” Tusk said on X following the verdict.
MAJOR ESCALATION
The explosions largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe, marking a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy supplies.
Germany’s top prosecutors’ office says Volodymyr Z. was one of a group suspected of renting a sailing yacht and planting explosives on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm.
He faces allegations of conspiring to commit an explosives attack and of “anti-constitutional sabotage”.
His Polish lawyer rejects the accusations and says Volodymyr Z. has done nothing wrong. He has also questioned whether a case concerning the destruction of Russian property by a Ukrainian at a time when the countries are at war is a criminal matter.
A second Ukrainian suspect, Serhii K., won a reprieve on Wednesday when Italy’s top court upheld an appeal against his transfer on procedural grounds. That case will have to go before court again.
In Poland, courts can refuse to hand over suspects wanted under European arrest if this would violate their human rights or if criminal proceedings for the same offence are underway in Poland.
(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki, Anna Koper, Pawel Florkiewicz and Barbara Erling in Warsaw, Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Emilio Parodi in Milan, writing by Alan Charlish, editing by Susan Fenton, Kirsten Donovan)
