The Montenegro Supreme Court has ruled that the country’s Minister of Justice will decide whether Kwon Do-hyung (Do Kwon), the 33-year-old co-founder of the bankrupt Terraform Labs and a key figure in the collapse of the cryptocurrencies Terra and Luna, will be extradited. This decision overturns a lower court ruling that favored his extradition to South Korea.
On Sept. 20, the Supreme Court announced it would refer the extradition request concerning Kwon to the Minister of Justice. This follows claims from the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office of Montenegro regarding procedural issues with the earlier decision to extradite Kwon to South Korea, a ruling supported by both the Montenegro High Court and the Appeals Court.
In February, the High Court accepted a U.S. extradition request for Kwon, stating that the U.S. government’s documents had arrived one day earlier than those from South Korea. Kwon then requested a review by the Appeals Court, which found no basis for prioritizing the U.S. documents and accepted his appeal. Consequently, the High Court decided to extradite him to South Korea.
However, the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office raised procedural concerns about the High Court’s decision, requesting a legality review from the Supreme Court in March. They argued that determining to which country a fugitive should be sent is the exclusive authority of the Minister of Justice and claimed the court had overstepped its jurisdiction. The Supreme Court accepted this argument, temporarily suspending Kwon’s extradition to South Korea and sending the case back for further consideration.
After a retrial, the High Court ruled in June that South Korea’s extradition request had arrived before that of the U.S. The Appeals Court echoed this sentiment in July, stating that there were no issues with the original ruling and that Kwon should be extradited to South Korea.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s decisions, asserting that the Minister of Justice must determine Kwon’s extradition and the country to which he will be sent. The court noted that both South Korea and the U.S. met the conditions for extradition but did not disclose specific details regarding those conditions.
The decision by the Montenegro Minister of Justice, who holds the final authority over extradition, is garnering significant attention from legal and financial sectors. The former minister, Andrej Milović, had expressed a willingness to extradite Kwon to the U.S. but was removed from his position amid conflicts with Prime Minister Milojko Spajić in July.
The South Korean Ministry of Justice is reportedly monitoring the situation and formulating a response based on Montenegro’s decision.
