A Warsaw court on Friday refused to extradite to Germany Volodymyr Zhuravlov, a Ukrainian national wanted under a European Arrest Warrant issued by that country and suspected of blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The court released him from detention, where he had been held since his arrest.
The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe issued a European Arrest Warrant for Zhuravlov on suspicion of constitutional sabotage, destruction of property, and the destruction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. He was arrested in Poland on September 30 in Pruszków, where he resides. The 49-year-old Zhuravlov claims he had nothing to do with the attack and that at the time it occurred, he was in Ukraine.
Polish politicians broadly welcomed the court’s decision refusing to extradite Zhuravlov from Poland to Germany.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, when asked in Ankara (Turkey) about Friday’s court ruling in Warsaw, said that he respected it, as he recognizes the principle of separation of powers, adding that it is not the role of the executive branch to interfere with judicial decisions.
Judge Dariusz Łubowski, who presided over the case, stated in his reasoning that, not determining whether the Ukrainian committed the act or not, such actions were not unlawful. On the contrary – they were justified, rational, and fair, because attacks on the critical infrastructure of an aggressor carried out by armed forces and special units during wartime are not acts of sabotage but acts of diversion, which in no case can be considered crimes.