A court in the Serbian city of Niš rejected the request to extradite fugitive Andrii Naumov, the former head of the internal security department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to his home country, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported on July 12.
The outlet wrote that the case was sent for further consideration by the Court of Appeals without any deadline for a new decision.
In Ukraine, Naumov is suspected of abuse of power in an official position, fraud, and causing losses to the state of more than Hr 3.2 million ($87,000), RFE/RL clarified.
The suspect left the country on Feb. 23, 2022, just hours before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He was then arrested by Serbian border guards in June on money laundering charges while trying to cross the border to North Macedonia.
In their appeal to the Serbian courts, Ukrainian prosecutors promised that the former SBU officer will be returned to Serbia to face the charges there after serving his sentence at home.