Harsh Prison Conditions Await Detained Terra CEO in Montenegro
Do Kwon, who is currently under arrest in Montenegro and could potentially face extradition to the United States or South Korea, will reportedly be subjected to harsh prison conditions in the country.
A criminal defense lawyer, who requested anonymity, stated that the conditions in Montenegro’s jails and prisons have not improved since the 2020 human rights report by the United States State Department.
According to the report, there was a case in 2015 where prison officers were found guilty of torturing and causing physical harm to 11 inmates. Additionally, some prisons in Montenegro have inadequate conditions due to overcrowding and a lack of medical care.
The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture had reported to the State Department that numerous prisoners were spending around 23 hours a day in cramped cells due to overcrowding, which had led to violent conflicts between inmates.
The lawyer disclosed that the prison cells are usually overcrowded, with roughly 10 to 11 inmates sharing an 8-meter-square room that usually lacks a bed.
Kwon could potentially face these conditions for a year or more while awaiting extradition requests, depending on the result of his case involving the alleged forgery of travel documents.
Kwon, who had been missing since Terra’s collapse in May 2022, was detained on March 23 at Podgorica airport in Montenegro, and authorities later confirmed his identity.
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Kwon, a South Korean national, is currently facing extradition requests from both the United States and South Korea, although he may initially face criminal charges in Montenegro. Whether Kwon will be extradited to South Korea or the United States remains uncertain.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
