The appellate court of the Serbian city of Nis overturned the one-year prison sentence of Andrii Naumov, a former employee of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Radio Free Europe reported on Wednesday.

The former head of the internal security department of the SBU was detained in Serbia in 2022 after fleeing from Ukraine. In September 2023, the Niš High Court found Naumov guilty of money laundering and sentenced him to one year in prison.

After overturning the verdict, the Court of Appeal sent the case back to the Niš High Court for a new decision.

Naumov allegedly left Ukraine on February 23, 2022, a few hours before the start of a full-scale war. He left the country in several trucks loaded with money and jewelry, which were headed to Germany and then to Serbia, Ukrainian Pravda reports.

After his departure, the Ukrainian authorities declared him a traitor, opened several criminal cases against him on charges of abuse of power and fraud, stripped him of his rank and declared him a wanted man.

He was detained on the border between Serbia and North Macedonia on June 7, 2022, with undeclared cash worth about 600,000 euros ($644,000), 120,000 dollars and two emeralds, Kyiv Independent reports.

Naumov was released from custody in December 2023 pending a final verdict.

The Serbian authorities have repeatedly rejected Ukraine’s request to extradite a former SBU employee.

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