Kwon’s $428K bail request in fake passport case approved by Montenegro court.
According to an announcement on Friday, the court in Montenegro handling Terra founder Do Kwon’s passport forgery case has accepted his bail request of 400,000 euros ($428,000) after a higher court overturned a previous approval.
In March, Kwon and former Terra executive Han Chang-joon were arrested in Montenegro for allegedly attempting to travel with falsified documents. After Kwon’s multi-billion dollar crypto enterprise collapsed in May last year, authorities in South Korea had been looking for him. Since his arrest, both South Korea and the U.S. have requested Kwon’s extradition to face criminal charges following his trial in Montenegro.
The basic court in the capital city of Podgorica had already approved a bail request from Kwon’s lawyers for the same amount, but it was overturned after the prosecution appealed the decision. A higher court found that the first approval was not based on a sound assessment of the defendants’ property using “concrete evidence.”
The basic court said in Friday’s statement that “the court appreciated the fact that they are persons who are not Montenegrin citizens, which is why it accepted their statements about the value of the property they own, which were supported by concrete evidence.”
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The case also requires authorities in Belgium to verify the authenticity of the travel documents that Kwon and Han had in their possession. The accused could face a prison sentence of up to five years, the court said. Contrary to the prosecution’s opinion, the court said that a sum of 400,000 euros “cannot represent an insignificant part of their property.”
The two South Korean nationals are due back in court on June 16. The prosecution has three days to appeal the bail decision.
Read more: Do Kwon’s Detention in Montenegro Extended After High Court Decision to Revoke Bail
Edited by Parikshit Mishra.