A Polish court on Friday rejected Germany’s request to extradite a Ukrainian suspected of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines carrying Russian gas to Germany, after politicians in Warsaw had called for the case to be dropped.
The judge ruled that Germany had provided insufficient evidence to justify extradition. He ordered the release of the suspect, identified as Volodymyr Z, who was detained in Poland last month under a European arrest warrant issued by Germany.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk welcomed the ruling in a post on X. “The problem with Nord Stream 2 was its construction, not its blowing up, no matter how brutal these words may sound and may upset some Germans,” he told reporters earlier on Friday.