– Swedish Coast Guard / Xinhua News / Contact
Rome, November 27 (dpa/popular army) –
A Ukrainian national detained in Italy for his alleged involvement in sabotage targeting Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022 was extradited on Thursday to Germany, just a week after the Italian Supreme Court approved the measure after a long legal battle.
The suspect, Sergei K., 49 years old, was handed over to the German police after three months in Italian detention: he spent most of the time in a high-security prison in Ferrara (north) and began a hunger strike for several days due to alleged ill-treatment.
The man was transported to Germany by helicopter, and upon landing in the German city of Karlsruhe (west), he was transferred to a car accompanied by heavily armed police officers. On Friday, he will appear before a judge, who is expected to issue the arrest warrant.
The German Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses him of co-authoring the explosions at gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in 2022, where he allegedly coordinated a team of seven people who placed explosive devices, damaging the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.