Italy’s justice minister has taken disciplinary action against three judges who placed under house arrest a Russian businessman who faced extradition to the United States and later escaped by fleeing to Russia, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Artem Us was to be charged in the US with transporting oil from Venezuela in violation of sanctions and with bank fraud.

Last year, US prosecutors accused Uss and four other Russians of supplying Russian buyers with military equipment purchased from American manufacturers, some of which ended up on the battlefield in Ukraine, The Guardian reports.

The suspect left his home in Basilio, on the outskirts of Milan, last month, a day after a Milan court agreed to extradite him to the United States. His electronic tag set off the alarm, but Uss fled before police arrived at the residence.

According to sources, Italian Minister Carlo Nordio is accusing judges at the Court of Appeal in Milan of “serious and inexcusable negligence” for granting the suspect house arrest last November, despite opposition from the Attorney General’s Office.

The prosecutor’s office emphasized that the suspect has significant financial resources, being the son of the governor of the region in Siberia, and there is a real threat of escape.

Judicial sources said the government was unusually delving into technical decisions issued by the judiciary, which is independent of the executive branch.

The Russian’s escape has embarrassed the government, with Prime Minister Georgia Maloney also criticizing the initial decision to place Uss under house arrest.

The Milan appeals court responded that prosecutors and the justice ministry could appeal the decision.

Minister Nordio is expected to appear in Parliament on Thursday to present a report on the matter to MPs.