Do Kwon's Detention in Montenegro Extended After High Court Decision to Revoke Bail

A lower court had determined the value of Kwon's property based on "statements" and not concrete evidence, a high court cited in a decision to scrap his bail approval.

AccessTimeIconMay 25, 2023 at 8:04 a.m. UTC
Updated May 26, 2023 at 2:51 p.m. UTC

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon will remain in detention while he faces charges of falsifying official documents in Montenegro after a request for bail was approved and later revoked, according to a court statement from Thursday.

Although the Basic Court in the country's capital Podgorica had initially accepted a bail proposal from Kwon's lawyers, Bloomberg reported that a high court had annulled the decision on Wednesday.

In a statement, the Basic Court of Podgorica confirmed to CoinDesk the high court's decision, and that it had received the agreed payment of 400,000 euros ($428,000) from Kwon on May 17.

The High Court decided against the bail approval after it found the Basic Court did not sufficiently assess the the value of the defendant's property, saying the lower court could not accept the value of defendants' property "based on their statements, but only concrete evidence," that was, in this instant, not in the case files.

Following the High Court ruling, the Basic Court has decided to extend Kwon's detention.

"In the renewed proceedings, the court will proceed according to the High Court's grounds for termination and after that make a decision based on the proposal of the defense counsel for the defendants to accept bail," the court said.

Kwon, along with former Terra executive Han Chang-joon, will be due in court for their next hearing on June 16.

The U.S. and South Korea have requested Kwon's extradition from Montenegrin authorities to face criminal charges over the collapse of Terraform Labs in May last year.



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Sandali Handagama is a CoinDesk reporter with a focus on crypto regulation and policy. She does not own any crypto.


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