ROME (Reuters) -An Italian appeals court on Wednesday reviewed the case for extraditing a Ukrainian man suspected by Germany of coordinating attacks on three Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in 2022, but adjourned the case to September 9, his lawyer said.
The 49-year-old man, identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, was arrested last month near the Italian coastal town of Rimini on a European warrant.
The appeals court in Bologna, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) north-west of Rimini, is seeking information on the conditions under which the suspect would be detained in Germany, the lawyer Nicola Canestrini told Reuters.
Canestrini said his client denied any involvement in the attacks and called on the Italian judiciary “not to sacrifice his rights” by allowing an extradition to take place.
Described by both Moscow and the West as an act of sabotage, the explosions largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe, prompting a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy supplies on the continent. No one has taken responsibility for the blasts and Ukraine has denied any role.
The suspect was part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, according to a statement issued by the German prosecutor’s office in August.
He faces charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of important structures.
The German prosecutors allege that he and his accomplices had set off from Rostock on Germany’s northeastern coast in a sailing yacht to carry out the attack almost three years ago.
Italy’s Carabinieri police arrested the man on August 21 in San Clemente, a small town near Rimini on Italy’s Adriatic coast, where he was holidaying with his family.
He told the court last month that he was a former soldier.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi in Milan, writing by Keith Weir, editing by Gavin Jones)
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