Although the arrest of Rajesh and Atul Gupta in the UAE is an important milestone for the National Prosecuting Authority, there is not much to celebrate yet.
has created a great buzz in South Africa. Calls for their extradition and presentation before the South African criminal justice system are heard from all over.
In the UAE, the extradition of a fugitive criminal is governed under the Law on Mutual Judicial Assistance in Criminal Matters . This is the same Federal Law whose provisions seem to have greatly influenced the UAE-South Africa Extradition Treaty of 2018, which was ratified on 9 June 2021. Getting the Guptas to South Africa is going to be a tedious and complex process even though there is an extradition treaty. The existence of an extradition treaty should not be considered as a foregone conclusion that the Guptas will be spending this Christmas in South African prisons. To begin with, the UAE has a judicial mechanism made up of stages that the Guptas can have recourse to as part of challenging their extradition.
Several articles of this law must be complied with to enable a successful recourse to the UAE-South Africa Extradition Treaty. I do not doubt that the three conditions set under Article 7 of Federal Law will be met by the South African authorities. Corruption constitutes a crime and a breach of criminal law both in the UAE and South Africa, thus the first condition of Article 7 and of the Federal Law will be met.
The point is that although the arrest of the Guptas in the UAE is an important milestone for the National Prosecuting Authority , there is not much to celebrate yet. So, we must hold our horses. There are still many political, legal and diplomatic discussions that are to take place between the UAE and South Africa regarding the delivery of the Guptas to Pretoria. Authorities central to the sought extradition — the director-general of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development in the case of South Africa, and the Ministry of Justice of the United Arab Emirates — are going to have their hands full.
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