Italian police have arrested a Ukrainian man suspected of co-ordinating attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, Germany's prosecutor general said on Thursday.
The suspect, identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, was allegedly part of a group that planted devices on the pipelines near the German island of Bornholm, prosecutors said.
He will be brought before a German judge after being transferred.
Serhii and his alleged accomplices had set off from Rostock on Germany's northern coast in a sailing yacht to carry out the attack, prosecutors said. The boat had been rented from a German company with the help of forged identity documents via middlemen, they added.
Explosives were detonated on September 26, 2022, seven months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it is alleged, severely damaging the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines – which carry natural gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea – taking them out of service and deepening Europe's energy crisis.
Seen by both Russia and the West as an act of sabotage, no one has claimed responsibility for the explosions.
Western powers were initially quick to blame Russia, which in turn accused them.
German investigations then pointed to a Ukrainian cell of five men and one woman believed to have chartered the yacht "Andromeda" to carry out the attack, according to Der Spiegel magazine and other media.
Their aim was to destroy the pipelines to prevent Russia from profiting in future from gas sales to Europe. Nord Stream's pipelines had long been controversial for allowing Russian gas to bypass eastern European transit routes and leaving Germany overly reliant on cheap energy from Moscow.
Authorities acted on a European arrest warrant for the suspect, who faces charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of buildings.
Carabinieri officers arrested him overnight in the province of Rimini on Italy's Adriatic coast, the German prosecution office said.
German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig thanked investigators for what she called a "highly complex operation" leading to the arrest.
The mysterious blasts sent methane levels in the Baltic rocketing to 1,000 times higher than normal. The findings released earlier this year, made with an underwater robot known as a glider, revealed that the gas spread far across the Baltic Sea, with the fallout stretching from the Danish coast to the Polish port of Gdansk.
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Dimitar Berbatov (Kerala Blasters) Word has it that Rene Meulensteen, the Kerala manager, plans to deploy his Bulgarian star in central midfield. The idea of Berbatov as an all-action, box-to-box midfielder, might jar with Spurs and Manchester United supporters, who more likely recall an always-languid, often-lazy striker.
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2020 Oscars winners: in numbers
- Parasite – 4
- 1917– 3
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Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
