Montenegro court cancels Do Kwon’s extradition approval

A Montenegro court has overturned the extradition permit for Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon.

According to an official statement, the Montenegro Court of Appeal on Dec. 14 ruled to annul the decision of the Podgorica High Court that approved Kwon’s extradition to the United States or South Korea.

Kwon’s defense successfully appealed this decision, and the case must be returned to the Podgorica Court of First Instance for retrial.

“The decision was revoked due to significant violations of the criminal procedure provisions.”

Montenegro Court of Appeal

The document also states that the decision on whether extradition will be postponed is not within the court’s jurisdiction, which only determines the existence of legal prerequisites for extradition, but is the exclusive competence of the Minister of Justice.

Amid the news about the cancellation of Kwon’s extradition, the rate of the Terra Luna Classic (LUNC) token jumped sharply by 18%. The coin increased in price from $0.000150 to $0.000171, according to CoinMarketCap.

Source: CoinMarketCap

However, some crypto community members suspect that corruption was involved in Do Kwon’s extradition case. One of the users noted that the Montenegrin court is one of the most corrupt courts in European countries.

Kwon is accused of fraud related to the TerraUSD (UST) collapse and LUNA (now renamed LUNC) tokens. The Terra crypto project collapsed in May 2022, resulting in losses of $60 billion to the crypto community.

At the end of November, the highest court in Podgorica approved the extradition of Do Kwon at the request of South Korean and American authorities. The decision on which of these two countries Kwon would be sent to was to be made by the Minister of Justice of Montenegro.

Montenegro planned to extradite Do Kwon to the United States. In the middle of December, it became known that the High Court of Montenegro extended Kwon’s detention.