Montenegro court rejects Do Kwon’s appeal, clears way for extradition to South Korea Montenegro court rejects Do Kwon’s appeal, clears way for extradition to South Korea
The Montenegro Court said its decision was final and could not be appealed by any party.
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Updated: Mar. 20, 2024 at 5:13 pm UTC
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The Appellate Court of Montenegro has declined Do Kwon’s appeal to halt his extradition to South Korea, according to a March 20 notice.
In its ruling, the Court affirmed the High Court’s decision to deport Kwon, the co-founder of now-defunct Terraform Labs, to face criminal charges in South Korea. These charges are linked to his alleged role in the collapse of Terra’s algorithmic UST stablecoin, which resulted in significant losses exceeding $40 billion for investors globally.
The Court added that its decision was final and cannot be appealed by any concerned parties. The notice did not provide a timeline for when Kwon would be extradited to his home country.
This decision marked a significant development in Kwon’s legal extradition battle. The process has garnered considerable international attention over the past year, with the United States and South Korea seeking custody due to his high-profile case.
Why South Korea?
A Montenegrin high court initially ruled to extradite Kwon to the US. However, the Appellate Court overturned the decision, citing procedural violations within the country’s criminal justice system.
Consequently, the Appellate Court ordered a retrial at the High Court of Podgorica.
In the subsequent trial, the High Court of Podgorica determined that Kwon should be extradited to South Korea, as their extradition request preceded that of the US.
Montenegro’s Appellate Court upheld this decision, stating:
“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.”
Last month, the European country deported Terraform Labs’ chief financial officer, Han Chang-Joon, to South Korea to face criminal charges. Chang-Joon and Kwon were arrested in Montenegro last year for traveling with falsified official documents.
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Terra is a blockchain protocol that uses fiat-pegged stablecoins to power price-stable global payments systems.
Terraform Labs
Terraform Labs is a startup that created Terra, a blockchain protocol and payment platform used for algorithmic stablecoins.
Do Kwon began his professional journey as an engineer, contributing to tech giants Apple and Microsoft.