“I don’t want to get too far ahead, but the longer I work on this case, the more I begin to wonder what hidden agenda there might be,” said attorney Tymoteusz Paprocki today on Republika TV, the defense lawyer of the Ukrainian citizen who was placed under arrest in connection with the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline.
On Wednesday, the court ordered a seven-day detention for Volodymyr Z., a Ukrainian suspected of involvement in the blowing up of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The Germans have treated the case as a priority.
“The German side made use of the European Arrest Warrant procedure—designed with the most serious criminals in mind—in such a questionable case, counting on the judiciary to cling strictly to the letter of the law without taking into account the actual circumstances,” attorney Paprocki commented on Republika TV.
He criticized the ruling panel, noting that “today the court sided with the letter of the law, interpreting it in a way detached from reality.”
When asked by Miłosz Kłeczek, “Why are the Germans so determined to convict this man? Is this meant to be a show trial? Is it about demonstrating that German-Russian infrastructure is untouchable?” Paprocki replied:
“I don’t want to get too far ahead, but the longer I work on this case, the more I begin to wonder what hidden agenda there might be.”
“We are dealing with a situation where a Ukrainian citizen, accused of something that for any Ukrainian would be considered an act of heroism—namely the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipeline—will spend the next seven days in custody until the next hearing,” the lawyer pointed out.
The 46-year-old man was detained on September 30 in the Pruszków district on the basis of a European Arrest Warrant issued under a ruling of the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe. According to the Germans, the man is suspected of involvement in the destruction of three of the four Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines. On September 26, 2022, explosions occurred on the seabed of the Baltic Sea, damaging the gas pipeline transporting natural gas from Russia to Germany.