Ukraine: Hamburger Richter lehnen Einstellung des Nord-Stream-Prozesses ab

The Hamburg court has decided to continue the trial against a key suspect in the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines. The defense's request to halt proceedings was rejected by the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court on Tuesday. Judge Anne Meier-Göring stated that defendants cannot be limited in their right to defend themselves under German law.

Ukrainian ex-officer Serhii Kusnetzow is accused of leading a secret command operation in September 2022, during which the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines between Russia and Germany were blown up in the Baltic Sea. He faces charges of committing a war crime by targeting civilian infrastructure. The ongoing trial in Hamburg began in mid-October.

The defense had sought to terminate the proceedings, arguing that Kusnetzow, as a former Ukrainian special forces officer, was bound by a secrecy obligation even after leaving the military, making a fair trial impossible. Two sworn statements from his former superiors were read in court, both stating that they could not waive Kusnetzow's oath of silence and threatened him with up to eight years in prison for perjury in Ukraine.

However, the prosecution's representative, Stefan Schmidt, argued that the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees the defendant's effective defense and noted the lack of evidence that Kusnetzow was actually bound by a secrecy obligation. The two Ukrainian superiors were described as "agents" of the Nord Stream attack, and there were "significant doubts" about the credibility of their statements. The court ruled that the trial did not violate the principle of fair proceedings.