Montenegro’s Court of Appeal Upholds Ruling on Do Kwon’s Extradition to South Korea

After a series of back-and-forths regarding Do Kwon’s extradition, it appears that the Terraform Labs co-founder and former CEO may finally be handed over to South Korean authorities after the Appellate Court of Montenegro confirmed a previous decision to extradite him to his native country.

Terraform Labs’ Chief Executive Officer, who was arrested in March 2023 with Kwon in Montenegro, was earlier ordered to be extradited to the US before the Appellate Court intervened.

Do Kwon Loses Appeal Against Extradition to South Korea

The Appellate Court of Montenegro, in an announcement on March 20, said it upheld an earlier March ruling from the High Court to extradite Do Kwon to South Korea. Also, the Montenegrin Court of Appeal rejected Kwon’s appeal to overturn the decision from the Podgorica High Court.

Unlike the recent loss, Kwon and his legal defense team have won three different appeals to prevent the Terraform Labs’ co-founder from being extradited to either South Korea or the United States.

While it earlier seemed that he was going to be deported to the United States, the Appellate Court overruled the decision of the High Court to extradite the former crypto mogul to the US, citing criminal procedural violations.

Although it was not stated when the extradition would happen, South Korea’s Police reportedly sought assistance from the Secretariat of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to bring Kwon into the country.

South Korea Over the United States

The Appellate Court stated in its recent announcement that South Korea’s request for Kwon’s extradition came before another one from the US, a factor that was considered 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.”

However, US prosecutors, who levied charges against the former Terraform Labs executive regarding the collapse of TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin and the LUNA token, are looking to fight Kwon’s deportation to South Korea.

Kwon, who was arrested in Montenegro alongside Terraform’s former Chief Legal Officer, Han Chang-joon, was sentenced to four months in prison after he was found guilty of carrying a fake passport.