protos.com
And just as we thought it was over, Montenegro pulls us back in. Do Kwon’s extradition has been delayed yet again by the country’s Supreme Court, local news outlet Vijesti reports.
The court announced yesterday that it had postponed his planned extradition to South Korea and will determine if previous High Court and Appellate Court rulings were legal, as per a request “for the protection of the legality” from the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office.
Counting the various reversals, delays, appeals, filings, and approvals that have littered Do Kwon’s extradition journey, there have now been at least 20 back-and-forths since November last year.
Over this period the High Court and Appellate Court combined have approved Do’s extradition to the US twice, and South Korea four times. The verdicts have been reversed five times, and Do has submitted five appeals. Of these five appeals, he’s only ever lost one.
Protos has put together a chart detailing the many twists and turns.
Read more: Montenegro PM Milojko Spajić may have met with Do Kwon, report
Do Kwon lawyer says it’s a ‘judicial disgrace’
Do’s lawyer, Goran Radićhas, claims minister of justice, Andrej Milović, made an ‘illegal private promise’ to extradite Do to the US instead of South Korea. He also called the extradition process a ‘judicial disgrace.’
In February, the High Court ruled that the US submitted its extradition request first but the Appellate court ruled against this on March 5, arguing it didn’t consider two emails submitted earlier by South Korea.
In the most recent developments, the High Court ruled in June that Do could be extradited to South Korea. Do didn’t appeal this decision and on August 1, it was approved by the Appellate Court.
Read more: Do Kwon appeal claims lawyers had 20 mins to review docs before hearing
The Supreme Court may send the ruling back to the High Court for retrial as it did on April 5. Until then, Montenegrin police and the Ministry of Justice will refrain from extraditing Do.