An appeals court in the Czech Republic has ruled that the country can extradite to the United States an Indian national accused of conspiring to assassinate a Sikh separatist in New York, Reuters reported.

The Czech Republic’s Justice Minister Pavel Blazek will now take a final decision on whether to extradite 52-year-old Nikhil Gupta once the court ruling is delivered to all parties in the case, a ministry spokesperson told news agency.

On November 29, last year, the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, announced that it had filed “murder-for-hire charges” against Gupta, in connection with his alleged participation in a thwarted plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader. Though the statement did not name the leader, a report in the Financial Times identified him as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun

Gupta was arrested on June 30 last year by the Czech authorities at the request of the United States when he travelled from India to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.

He claimed that his identity was mistaken and that he was not the man the United States was looking for, according to Reuters.

In December, Gupta’s family had moved the Indian Supreme Court, alleging that he was in the Czech Republic on a leisure and business exploration trip when he was illegally detained after exiting the Prague airport. It had sought directions to be issued to the Ministry of External Affairs, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Indian Embassy in the Czech Republic to immediately trace and produce Gupta.

The Supreme Court told the family to approach a Czech court for any relief.