The court proceeding on Tuesday established Alexsey Pertsev's three-month imprisonment in Dutch custody as the creator of Tornado Cash.
The foundation of the case against Pertsev was presented at a preliminary court hearing at the Palace of Justice in's-Hertogenbosch after 103 days of incarceration for journalists.
The prosecution offered a high-level synopsis of their investigation prior to Advocate WK Cheng's defence. They portrayed Pertsev as being crucial to the running of Tornado Cash.
Regarding Tornado Cash's applications and frequent misconceptions about the system's capabilities, Cheng made a number of important observations.
“I’m disappointed about the decision from the court.” Cheng said after the preliminary hearing, “We’ve tried to explain as clearly as possible what the defence standpoints are.”
A lawyer for Pertsev acknowledged that the initial session had been rescheduled to February 20, 2023, and he reaffirmed his conviction that the state had presented an unfair account of Pertsev’s involvement with Tornado Cash.
“We are going to do some requests; we’re going to some investigations, things that we need to work out to have cleared up. And we’re going to try to prepare for the next court session.”
Despite a plethora of pledges from his defence team, including surveillance in his residence and weekly check-ins at the local police station, the prosecution raised worries that Pertsev is a flight risk if he were to be released before the first session.