The Supreme Court of Cassation — Italy’s highest judicial authority — has overturned an appellate court’s decision to extradite Serhii Kuznetsov to Germany. The former Ukrainian army captain is accused of organizing and carrying out the attack on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in September 2022. The case will now be reconsidered, marking an unexpected twist in one of the most high-profile investigations of recent years.
Serhii Kuznetsov was arrested on August 21 in Rimini under a European Arrest Warrant issued by German prosecutors. German investigators consider him one of the key figures behind the operation that led to the destruction of three out of four Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea. The Bologna Court of Appeal had initially agreed to hand the Ukrainian over, but the defense filed an appeal to the Court of Cassation — which has now been upheld.
Errors in the German Request Were the Basis for the Decision
The Court of Cassation based its ruling on an error in the German extradition request, specifically a “misclassification of the alleged criminal acts” attributed to Kuznetsov.
The defendant’s lawyer, Nicola Canestrini, commented sharply on the court’s decision:
“Such an error resulted in the violation of my client’s right to effectively participate in his own trial, breaching the principles of a fair trial enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and EU law.”
Canestrini announced that in the coming days he would consider filing a motion to release his client from custody, stating that “the legal basis for this measure has now collapsed.”
In his statement, the attorney emphasized a fundamental principle that, in his view, guided the court’s decision:
“This ruling confirms that even within the framework of European judicial cooperation in criminal matters, fundamental rights and procedural guarantees can never be sacrificed for reasons of state. Neither efficiency nor political pressure can justify restricting the right to a fair trial: the rule of law exists only where rights take precedence over power.”
A detailed justification of the verdict is expected to be published within the next few weeks.
And in Poland?
The Italian court’s decision echoes a nearly identical case unfolding in Poland. Based on the same German arrest warrant, another Ukrainian — Volodymyr Z. — was detained near Warsaw at the end of September, also suspected of involvement in the sabotage.
It remains unclear what will happen to the detained man and whether he will be extradited to Germany. The head of Poland’s National Security Bureau, Sławomir Cenckiewicz, recently stated that “Poland should not participate in any operation to extradite a man who has harmed Russia.”
For years, Warsaw had warned Berlin about the strategic risks of Europe’s dependence on Russian gas. The sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines — regardless of who was behind it — ultimately put an end to that dangerous project.