An United Arab Emirates (UAE) court dimissed South Africa’s Gupta extradition request. [Picture: EWN]
A United Arab Emirates (UAE) court’s decision to dismiss South Africa’s request to have the Gupta brothers extradited was at least in part the result of incompetence on the South African side, according to an analyst.
Last week, the department of justice and correctional services revealed it was notified of the UAE’s decision in a diplomatic note on Thursday. The decision had been made in February.
Expressing dismay and shock at the UAE’s refusal to send Rajesh and Atul Gupta to account for their alleged corrupt dealings in South Africa, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said all boxes had been ticked.
But a senior lecturer in Public Law at the University of Cape Town (UCT), Professor Cathy Powell, said South African authorities had ticked the wrong boxes in their extradition application. This, she hinted, was in part due to a weakened law enforcement apparatus.
“Due to the state capture report, we know how much damage the Guptas did and now we can’t understand why it isn’t being put right. Some of the damage that state capture did was to weaken the NPA and to weaken the process whereby such things are put right.”
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What went wrong with the Gupta extradition request?
The Gupta brothers were arrested in the UAE in June 2022 after Interpol issued a red alert for the Indian nationals. In July, South Africa delivered a formal extradition request. Justice minister Ronald Lamola said there were a number of engagements with Emirati authorities.
He said the presiding judge and prosecutor were asked to keep the South African Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the department in the loop, but claimed local authorities were not notified when the Guptas appeared in court on 13 February.
Meanwhile, Powell said the “fair question would be did South Africa make the wrong information available? There does seem to be some confusion on what it’s submitted”.
“You can’t call that ticking all the boxes if you tick the wrong box,” said Powell.
Furthermore, she stated, South African authorities need to be pressed on whether they had done their utmost best. She said they should not have relied solely on reports from the diplomatic service, but should have requested to be present when the case was heard.
“I’m not sure whether South Africa ticked all of the boxes. One of the points of confusion is that South Africa issued one warrant of arrest against the Guptas, withdrew that and issued another one. UAE courts rejected part of the extradition application because it was based on the first warrant of arrest and not the second.”
She said it was possible that the brothers could be rearrested, but when exactly remained uncertain.
“The red alert has to be reapplied for. The same grounds exist for getting that red alert the second time because the extradition request was turned down for technical reasons. It wasn’t a finding on the merit, so I think another red alert can be obtained easily.”
Once a red notice is reissued, 195 would be obliged to arrest and assist with the extradition of the Gupta brothers. “We can go back to square one,” she said.
