BELGRADE, Sept 11, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A Serbian appeals court has cancelled an extradition order for the Belarusian journalist and opposition leader Andrei Gnyot, sending the case back to a lower court, according to a decision published Wednesday.

According to the appeals court decision published on its website, it overturned the extradition because it "was made on the basis of an incompletely established factual situation, which resulted in a significant violation of the provisions of the criminal procedure".

Gnyot told AFP that "on the one hand, it's a good thing I'm not being extradited right now. On the other hand, I am not given freedom. I continue to be kept under arrest, and I am not guilty of anything."
He said he was short of money to pay for rent and food, and was allowed out for only an hour each day.

"I can't get medical care, let alone live a normal life. And if I run out of money -- and now I live only on donations, I can't work, I have no savings -- then I have to go back to prison again," he said.

Gnyot was arrested in October 2023 in Belgrade, where he was filming a commercial video, on the basis of an Interpol notice -- since withdrawn -- accusing him of tax fraud of several hundred million euros. He has been under house arrest in Belgrade since June.

The first decision to extradite him was made in December, before being annulled and sent back to the lower court, which ruled again on May 31 in favour of his extradition.

Gnyot had fled Belarus in 2021 and says his life would be in danger should he be sent back.

He has alway denied the tax fraud allegations, saying they were invented by Belarus authorities to keep him quiet.

He had helped create an association that supported protests against the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko in 2020.

In August, 70 European directors and actors -- including Juliette Binoche, Justine Triet, and Ken Loach -- sent an open letter to Serbia asking it not to extradite Gnyot.

Belarus ranks 167 out of 180 in Reporters without Borders' freedom of press rankings, which says that it is now the most dangerous country in Europe for journalists.