The Nord Stream explosion process will not be stopped

In the Hamburg trial surrounding the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipelines, the defense failed with an application to have the proceedings dismissed. The Hamburg Higher Regional Court rejected this on Tuesday as unfounded.

In the proceedings, a former officer in the Ukrainian armed forces is accused of, among other things, war crimes. He is said to have helped plan the explosion and was part of the sabotage team. The court set hearing dates until the end of January.

The lawyers of the 50-year-old accused Serhij K. based their application on the grounds that there was an irreversible procedural obstacle to the rule of law that made a fair defense impossible. The defense argued that K. had to adhere to extensive military secrecy regulations, which also prevented him from commenting on potentially exculpatory facts and background information. A fair trial is unthinkable.

The court did not follow this. The defendant's rights to a fair trial were not violated, said presiding judge Anne Meier-Goering. There are already “doubts” that the affidavits submitted by the defense by former supposed superiors regarding a duty of confidentiality are official documents.

Regardless of this, the accused is not limited in his ability to defend himself in this country. She emphasized that criminal prosecution based on the service laws of foreign countries is not possible in Germany.

The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines are intended for the transport of Russian natural gas to Germany and the EU. The lines running through the Baltic Sea were blown up and severely damaged a few months after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine in September 2022. They were not in operation at that time.

According to the indictment, the defendant in the Hamburg trial is said to have planned the explosion with other soldiers and later led the sabotage team that attached explosive devices to the pipelines. According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, the sabotage of the gas pipelines was carried out on behalf of Ukrainian state authorities. The government in Kiev rejects official involvement in operations against the lines.