Key takeaways:
- The approval for Terra founder Do Kwon’s extradition to the US or South Korea has been revoked by a Montenegrin judge.
- The ultimate decision of which nation came first was expected to be made by the Montenegrin Minister of Justice.
The approval for Terra founder Do Kwon’s extradition to the US or South Korea has been revoked by a Montenegrin judge.
An official statement on December 19 stated that the Appellate Court of Montenegro decided on December 14 to overturn the High Court of Podgorica’s decision to approve Kwon’s extradition to the United States or South Korea.
Kwon’s extradition to Montenegro is subject to the minister of justice’s ultimate decision, which was made by the High Court of Podgorica in November 2023 after the necessary legal conditions had already been established.
As per the most recent ruling by the appellate court, Kwon’s defense has effectively challenged that ruling, and the matter ought to be sent back to the Podgorica Basic Court for a new trial.
In order to prosecute him on criminal charges connected to the demise of his multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency company, Terraform Labs, in May 2022, the US and South Korea have demanded his extradition.
Kwon was first detained in Montenegro in March on suspicion of trying to flee the nation using a forged passport. However, a judge approved a $436,000 bond in May, which allowed him to be released from custody pending trial.
Later, in June, a Montenegro court found him guilty of document forgery and sentenced him to four months in prison. Kwon lost his appeal against the court’s ruling, and in November, he was ultimately given a four-month sentence.
In September 2022, Kwon became the center of a global search after Interpol, the world police organization, allegedly issued a “red notice” for him. This was in response to the May 2022 collapse of the two tokens he had invented, TerraUSD and Luna, which caused the loss of around $40 billion in investments in a matter of days.
