Montenegro’s Court of Appeal Upholds Ruling on Do Kwon’s Extradition to South Korea – The extradition ordeal involving Do Kwon might have concluded as the Appellate Court of Montenegro upheld the earlier decision to deport him to South Korea, potentially signaling the end of a prolonged legal battle for the Terraform Labs co-founder and former CEO.
Earlier ordered to be extradited to the US before the Appellate Court intervened was Terraform Labs’ Chief Executive Officer, who was arrested in March 2023 with Kwon in Montenegro. In an announcement on March 20, the Appellate Court of Montenegro upheld an earlier March ruling from the High Court to extradite Do Kwon to South Korea.
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Additionally, Kwon’s appeal to overturn the decision from the Podgorica High Court was rejected by the Montenegrin Court of Appeal. Contrary to the recent setback, Kwon and his legal defense team have successfully appealed three times to avoid the extradition of the Terraform Labs’ co-founder to either South Korea or the United States.
Initially poised for deportation to the United States, the Appellate Court nullified the High Court’s decision to extradite the former crypto mogul, citing criminal procedural violations. While the timing of the extradition wasn’t specified, reports indicate that South Korea’s Police have sought the assistance of the Secretariat of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to facilitate Kwon’s return to the country.
In its recent announcement, the Appellate Court highlighted that South Korea’s extradition request for Kwon preceded that of the US, a factor taken into account by the High Court. “Deciding on the appeal of the defendant’s counsel, the panel of the Court of Appeals assessed that the first-instance court had correctly established that the request of the Republic of South Korea arrived earlier in the order of arrival compared to the request of the USA, so it correctly assessed this and other criteria.”
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Yet, US prosecutors, who brought charges against the former Terraform Labs executive related to the collapse of TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin and the LUNA token, are seeking to oppose Kwon’s extradition to South Korea. Following his arrest in Montenegro alongside Terraform’s former Chief Legal Officer, Han Chang-joon, Kwon was convicted of possessing a fake passport and sentenced to four months in prison.
