A Polish court ruled on Friday that one of the two men suspected of attacking Russian opposition activist Leonid Volkov in Vilnius cannot be extradited to Lithuania, Reuters reports.
The Court of Appeal in Poland said the man could not be extradited to Lithuania because Polish prosecutors were conducting similar proceedings. A decision on the second suspect is pending.
Two Polish nationals suspected of attacking Volkov were arrested in response to the European arrest warrant in Warsaw on April 3.
In the same month, the city’s regional court decided to extradite the suspects to Lithuania on the condition that, if sentenced to prison, they would serve their time in Poland.
However, the suspects in the Volkov attack have appealed against the European arrest warrant.
Volkov, a close ally of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison, was attacked in his car outside his home in the Lithuanian capital late on March 12. The attacker broke the car’s window, sprayed tear gas, and started hitting Volkov with a meat mallet, breaking his arm and causing leg injuries.
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