The Hindu : Quattrochhi counsel upbeat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 12, 2003

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International

Quattrochhi counsel upbeat

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE Jan. 11. Although Malaysia's Court of Appeal has not set a date for pronouncing its

judgment on the Quattrochhi extradition case, the general expectation within the legal circles here is that the verdict might be delivered soon.

This is so despite the fact that the complications in this case might require considerable time for deliberation.

The timing of the judgment apart, the prospective ruling acquires importance in the context of the new qualitative dimension of the proceedings in the Court of Appeal.

A new reality check has come into focus as a direct result of the highly interactive hearings that the presiding judge of a three-member bench of the Court of Appeal, Hamid Mohamad, conducted. This aspect reflects the mood in the Indian camp, represented by Malaysian prosecutors, Kamrulhisham Kamaruddin and Cyrus V. Das, in the absence of a bilateral extradition treaty.

At the same time, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, counsel for Ottavio Quattrochhi (the Italian businessman whom India wants extradited in connection with the Bofors case), remains upbeat that last month's verdict of the High Court here will not be overturned. The reason for this has much to do with the trend of the latest hearings before the Court of Appeal, although this forum might not be the final arbiter in complicated extradition cases such as this. While the High Court has upheld a lower sessions judge's refusal to authorise

Mr. Quatrrochhi's extradition to India, the two sensitive issues have been articulated during the latest appeal-process.

At one level, Mr. Quattrochhi, who left Malaysia following the High Court's judgment that went in his favour, is being asked by the Malaysia-India camp to ``deposit' his ``international passport'' with the Court of Appeal as suggested by it in its ruling on December 16 last.

The basic issue at another level is the sustainability or untenability of the Malaysia-India camp's ``notice of appeal'' against the High Court's judgment that was delivered on December 13 last. This issue is being addressed within the framework of a petition from Mr. Quattrochhi's counsel

that the High Court's verdict be upheld and that the passport issue, too, be settled in his favour. The reality check pertains to the latest point-counterpoint exchanges that took place between the two parties on either side of the extradition-divide.

The foremost issue at stake, in this milieu, is whether the Sessions Court had, in the first place, followed the procedure laid down by Malaysia's Extradition Act of 1992. According to Mr. Das, who articulated this issue before the apex court, the Sessions Court's judgment should be evaluated against a significant provision of the Malaysian Extradition Act (Section 19) that calls for a

comprehensive inquiry as the sole basis for rejecting a foreign government's request that an alleged ``criminal fugitive'' be turned over.

The argument advanced is that the relevant Sessions Court did not conduct a plenary inquiry as regards India's plea that Mr. Quattrochhi be extradited. He was

still in Malaysia when the lower court in Kuala Lumpur decided on December 2 last that there was no merit in India's request.

Mr. Shafee, who outlined the counterpoint, has asserted that another provision of the same Extradition Act (Section 37) does not admit of any appeal against the ``final and conclusive'' nature of the High Court's judgment that upheld the lower court's dismissal of India's plea.

Mr. Shafee's argument is that the Malaysia-India team is, in effect, resorting to a colourable abuse of the court processes in the absence of a judicial space for an appeal and given also the fact that Mr. Quattrochhi left Malaysia at a time when there was no legal restriction whatsoever on him after the High Court had ruled in his favour.

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