By Marek Strzelecki and Anna Koper
WARSAW (Reuters) -A Polish court will consider on Friday whether a Ukrainian diver who is wanted by Germany in connection with the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions should be handed over to Berlin.
Although Warsaw says the decision over whether Volodymyr Z. should be transferred to Germany is one for the courts alone, its Prime Minister Donald Tusk said earlier this month that handing Volodymyr Z. over was not in Poland’s interest.
Tusk said the problem was not that the pipelines were blown up in September 2022, but that they were built at all.
The explosions largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe, marking a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy supplies.
The pipelines were a source of conflict between Warsaw and Berlin as far back as the 2000s when they were still in the planning stage, with Poland arguing they compromised security by making Europe overly dependent on Russian energy while handing billions of euros to Moscow.
Germany’s government has declined to comment on Tusk’s remarks or tensions over the case, while a Polish government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
One Germany diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that Tusk’s comments could harm cooperation between two of Kyiv’s key allies.
However, another German diplomat said they did not expect Berlin to pick a fight with Warsaw over the case and that the investigation would continue whatever the outcome.
ACCUSATIONS OF ‘ANTI-CONSTITUTIONAL SABOTAGE’
Germany’s top prosecutors’ office says Volodymyr Z. was one of a group suspected of renting a sailing yacht and planting explosives on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm.
He faces allegations of conspiring to commit an explosives attack and of “anti-constitutional sabotage”.
His Polish lawyer rejects the accusations and says Volodymyr Z. has done nothing wrong. He has also questioned whether a case concerning the destruction of Russian property by a Ukrainian at a time when the countries are at war is a criminal matter.
“I’m personally pleased that this case is generating strong public sentiment, including statements from politicians,” Tymoteusz Paprocki said on Thursday.
Warsaw regional prosecutors’ spokesperson Piotr Skiba said that on legal grounds it would be hard not to hand the Ukrainian over to Germany.
“It’s very difficult to find any grounds on which we couldn’t transfer him to the Germans,” he said, cautioning that the final decision rests in the Warsaw court’s hands.
REPRIEVE FOR SUSPECT IN ITALY
A second Ukrainian suspect, Serhii K., won a reprieve on Wednesday when Italy’s top court upheld an appeal against his transfer on procedural grounds.
That case will have to go before court again.
In Poland, courts can refuse to hand over suspects wanted under European arrest warrants if this would violate their human rights or if criminal proceedings for the same offence are underway in Poland.
Warsaw has launched its own investigation into the Nord Stream bombings, but Volodymyr Z. is a witness not a suspect.
(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki, Anna Koper and Barbara Erling in Warsaw, Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke in Berlin, Emilio Parodi in Milan, writing by Alan Charlish, editing by Alexander Smith)
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