Assange has long argued that efforts to extradite him have been “politically motivated”, but the court refused to grant him leave to appeal on those grounds…reports Asian Lite News
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has fended off the threat of immediate extradition to the United States after the latest ruling by the High Court in London, which has signalled it may allow him to appeal his case.
Notably, if extradited to the US, the 52-year-old Australian citizen will have to stand on trial on chargesof espionage relating to WikiLeaks’s release of classified documents relating to the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The trial could see him spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The court gave the US government three weeks to give a series of assurances around Assange’s First Amendment rights and that he would not face the death penalty. If the US fails to give these assurances, Assange would be allowed to appeal his extradition.
At a two-day hearing last month, Assange sought permission to review the 2022 extradition decision signed off by the UK.
A panel of two judges said in their Tuesday ruling that Assange would not be extradited immediately, giving the US a three-week window to provide assurances that he would enjoy similar legal rights as US citizens.
“If those assurances are not given, then leave to appeal will be given and there will then be an appeal hearing,” the judgement read.
If the assurances are given, there will be a further hearing in May to decide if the assurances are ‘satisfactory’, before a final decision on leave to appeal, it said.
The court said Assange had a “real prospect of success” on three of the nine grounds of appeal: that his extradition is incompatible with freedom of expression; that, if extradited, Assange might be prejudiced at trial due to his nationality; and that, if extradited, he would not enjoy adequate death penalty protection.
Assange has long argued that efforts to extradite him have been “politically motivated”, but the court refused to grant him leave to appeal on those grounds.
“The judge found, on the evidence, that Assange had not shown that the request was made for the purpose of prosecuting him on account of his political opinions,” it said.
It said the judge had taken account of the evidence that the CIA had planned to kidnap Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy – where he was holed up between 2012-2019 – but the judge “concluded that this was not related to the extradition proceedings.” (ANI)
His uncle, Mehul Choksi, who has taken up citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda, is also accused of cheating the PNB and wanted by Indian agencies…reports Asian Lite News
Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, who allegedly cheated Punjab National Bank (PNB) of over Rs 11,000 crore, is likely to be extradited soon to India from the UK as he lost his appeal in the High Court on Wednesday, reports said.
Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay, who heard the appeal earlier this year, delivered the verdict that allowed the fugitive businessman’s extradition to India, according to reports.
Nirav Modi had appealed against his extradition where he would face trial in the fraud case linked to the PNB.
“…We are far from satisfied that Mr Modi’s mental condition and the risk of suicide are such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him”, the HC said, as per reports.
However the process of bringing him from London back to India may take some time.
His uncle, Mehul Choksi, who has taken up citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda, is also accused of cheating the PNB and wanted by Indian agencies.
Nirav Modi has the option of approaching the Supreme Court against the High Court’s order within 14 days.
However, the condition is that he can appeal in the Supreme Court only if the high court agrees that his case involves a point of law of general public importance, reports said.
If this option is spent, Modi is free to approach the European Court of Human Rights.
Two appeals were filed on Thursday to the UK high court in order to contest Assange’s extradition.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday appealed against his extradition from the UK to the US where he faces espionage charges.
This comes as UK on June 17 approved extradition of Assange to the US over the spy charges. Assange’s organization had marked that decision as a “dark day for press freedom,” after UK Home Secretary Priti Patel signed the extradition order.
However, now Assange has appealed against his extradition from the UK. This move by Assange set the stage for months of further legal wrangling over whether he should be sent to the US to face espionage charges, reported Wall Street journal.
Gareth Peirce, a senior partner at Birnberg Peirce & Partners who is representing Assange, said that two appeals were filed on Thursday to the UK high court in order to contest his extradition. The court must now decide whether the appeals can be heard.
Assange had until Friday to bring the appeal. Assange’s lawyers are appealing both UK Home Secretary Patel’s decision and also elements of a ruling by District Judge Vanessa Baraitser last year, which broadly focused on whether Assange would get a fair trial in the U.S. The details of the appeals were not made public, as per the media outlet.
The charges on the WikiLeaks founder are related to the publication in 2010 and 2011 by WikiLeaks of a huge trove of classified material that painted a bleak picture of the American military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their aftermath.
After the UK court passed the order to extradite Assange, his organization Wikileaks said, “This is a dark day for Press freedom and British democracy. Anyone who cares about freedom of expression should be deeply ashamed.”
UK’s Home Secretary Priti Patel leaves 10 Downing Street after attending a cabinet meeting in London. (Photo by Alberto Pezzali/Xinhua/IANS)
A London court issued a formal extradition order back in April, leaving Patel to rubber-stamp his transfer to the US after a years-long legal battle.
Earlier, Jennifer Robinson, Assange’s legal counsel, had said that an appeal would be brought and that the case could ultimately be taken to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
During the extradition order, Assange’s wife, Stella Moris, in a press conference had said that the UK “should not be engaging in persecution on behalf of a foreign power that is out for revenge… that foreign power committed crimes which Julian put into the sunlight.”
His extradition has been the subject of numerous court dates since his arrest, which took place after Assange sought diplomatic refuge in the embassy for seven years.
Rights groups have expressed concerns over the US’s indictment of Assange, saying it undermines freedom of the press.
“Allowing Julian Assange to be extradited to the US would put him at great risk and sends a chilling message to journalists the world over,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International secretary-general, said in a statement. (ANI)
The case is now at the hands of British Home Secretary Priti Patel, who will decide whether to approve the extradition…reports Asian Lite News
Hundreds of people gathered in front of the British Home Office to protest against the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US, denouncing it as “politically motivated” and a “grave threat to freedom of press”. The protestors assembled on Tuesday in London.
After Assange waged several rounds of appeal battle spanning months, Britain’s Westminster Magistrate’s Court issued a formal order in April to extradite him to the US to face espionage charges.
The case is now at the hands of British Home Secretary Priti Patel, who will decide whether to approve the extradition.
The Wikileaks founder’s legal team can make submissions before Wednesday to Patel explaining why the former shouldn’t be extradited.
On Tuesday, Assange’s wife Stella Assange said on Twitter that a representation had been filed to the Home Secretary to block his extradition to the US.
Assange, 50, is wanted in the US on allegations of disclosing national defence information following WikiLeaks’s publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked military documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars a decade ago, which included an Apache helicopter video footage documenting the US military gunning down Reuters journalists and children in Baghdad’s streets in 2007.
“It’s very clear that the case is politically motivated because the American authorities are using the espionage act to attempt extradition. And the espionage act has been historically used to suppress American dissidents,” Lano Nika, a protester, told Xinhua.
“This case is critical not only for media freedom, but also for institution accountability and personal freedoms,” she added.
“We know that media freedom has been eroding and in a precarious state. It is not in a good condition in our Western part of the world and that needs to be turned around. This case illustrates the fragility of media freedom,” Kristinn Hrafnsson, Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks, told Xinhua.
He said his team will keep on fighting if Patel signs the extradition, as there’re other legal avenues for appeal, including taking this case up to the European Court of Human Rights.
“There are legal avenues but it will take time and enough is enough. He has spent too much time deprived of his liberty and the opportunity to spend time with his wife and his children,” he said, noting that Assange’s health has been deteriorating after long incarceration.
The Wikileaks founder has been held at south London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since 2019. He married his long-term partner Stella Moris, a lawyer, in the prison in March.
Lawyers for the US said earlier that Assange would be allowed to transfer to Australia, his home country, to serve any prison sentence he may be given.
Assange has been on remand at the Belmarsh maximum-security prison in southeast London since October 2020, after serving an 11-month sentence for breaking bail conditions…reports Asian Lite News
The Westminster Magistrate’s Court will issue a warrant on April 20 to proceed with extradition to the United States of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The magistrate will issue the order to extradite Julian Assange to the United States. The order will then go to (UK Home Secretary Priti Patel) for approval. Assange’s defence will make submissions to Patel (deadline 18 May),” WikiLeaks said on Twitter.
Assange has been on remand at the Belmarsh maximum-security prison in southeast London since October 2020, after serving an 11-month sentence for breaking bail conditions. In December 2021, the London High Court ruled in favour of the US appeal to extradite Assange, overturning an earlier decision that the Australian journalist cannot be extradited to the US due to health issues and the inhumane conditions he might face in the US prison system.
Assange is wanted by the US on espionage charges after WikiLeaks published thousands of classified documents that shed light on the atrocities committed by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. If put on trial and convicted in the US, Assange may be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.
Mirchi, an aide of Dawood Ibrahim, was involved in drug trafficking and extortion for the underworld don before his death in the UK in August 2013…reports Asian Lite News
After fugitive businessmen Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and middleman Sanjay Bhandari, India has initiated another high-profile extradition effort in the United Kingdom (UK) – this time for the wife and sons of Iqbal Mirchi, an aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
India’s Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) extradition request for Mirchi’s wife Hajra Memon and sons, Junaid Iqbal Memon and Asif Iqbal Memon, has been sent to the UK through proper channels after it was approved by a special court in Mumbai, people familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.
It is soon likely to be filed in a court in London through Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), they added.
After winning extradition cases against #VijayMallya & #NiravModi, India has now initiated another high-profile extradition in the UK; this time against underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s aide Iqbal Mirchi’s wife Hajra, sons Junaid & Asif. I report https://t.co/INBe3Dpzhcpic.twitter.com/D2Vu5Q51sA
The Memons, accused of using drug money to acquire properties across the world, fled to the UK sometime in 2019 when ED launched a probe against them. A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court, in February last year, declared them as fugitive economic offenders (FEO) and Interpol red notices were also issued against them around the same time.
Hajra and Iqbal Memon are Indian citizens while Asif holds a British passport.
Mirchi, an aide of Dawood Ibrahim, was involved in drug trafficking and extortion for the underworld don before his death in the UK in August 2013.
According to the central anti-money laundering probe agency, Mirchi owned properties at several places in Mumbai, the UAE and also owns at least 16 properties in the UK. Properties worth ₹798 crore owned by the family have already been attached by ED in 2020. These include a farmhouse, two bungalows and a 3.5-acre plot of land in Panchgani, besides 15 properties in the UAE.
The central agency filed a money laundering case against the Memons in 2019 to investigate their link in alleged illegal dealings in the purchase and sale of real estate in Mumbai and a charge sheet was filed in December 2019.
One of the people cited above said “irrefutable evidence has been presented in the extradition request sent to the UK and we are hopeful that formal proceedings in the court will begin soon”.
Indian agencies have already won extradition proceedings against two other fugitives based in London – Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. After the UK high court ordered his extradition in 2020, Mallya was denied permission to file an appeal in the UK Supreme Court but his extradition is pending due to “secret political proceedings”, as claimed by the British government.
Similarly, extradition for Modi, lodged in Wandsworth prison for almost three years now, has already been ordered by a Westminster court but he has challenged the same before the UK high court.
The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which represents the Indian authorities in court, confirmed it will be contesting the appeal on behalf of the Indian government…reports Asian Lite News.
The UK High Court will hear fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi’s extradition appeal today. Nirav Modi, who remains behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest in March 2019, was granted permission to appeal against the Westminster Magistrates’ Court extradition order on mental health and human rights grounds.
High Court judge Martin Chamberlain had ruled on August 9 that arguments presented by Modi’s legal team concerning his “severe depression” and “high risk of suicide” were arguable at a substantial hearing.
“This case is fixed for a one-day hearing on 14th December,” a High Court official said, in reference to the substantial hearing.
The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which represents the Indian authorities in court, confirmed it will be contesting the appeal on behalf of the Indian government.
During the hearing, Nirav’s attorney informed the court that his client probably commit “suicide” if his client would be placed in a Mumbai based court. Subsequently, the court had granted permission to appeal against an earlier ruling on humanitarian grounds.
While hearing the case in August this year, High Court judge Martin Chamberlain proffered the judgement in favour of Modi and said he should be given a substantial hearing to file a petition against the earlier ruling. It is worth mentioning, in February this year, the Westminster court found Nirav in good health and had ruled to hand over him to the Indian government in order to face fraud charges pending in India.
“I will not restrict the basis on which those grounds can be argued, though it seems to me that there should be a particular focus on whether the judge was wrong to reach the conclusion he did, given the evidence as to the severity of the appellant’s [Modi’s] depression, the high risk of suicide and the adequacy of any measures capable of preventing successful suicide attempts in Arthur Road prison,” PTI quoted the court ruling.
If he wins today’s hearing, he cannot be extradited to New Delhi unless and until India gets success in getting approval to appeal at the Apex Court on a point of “law of public importance.”
On the other hand, if he loses, the fugitive businessman can approach the Apex Court on a point of law of public importance. According to UK law, the petitioner must file his appeal in the Supreme Court within 14 days of the last high court judgement.
They had also introduced several medical experts to give evidence that Modi was at high risk of suicide…reports Poonam Joshi.
Billionaire fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi has been granted permission to appeal against his extradition from the UK to India to face fraud charges on the grounds that a return to India would harm his mental health and place him at risk of suicide.
The High Court judge Martin Chamberlain ruled that Modi should be given a “substantial hearing” to appeal against an earlier ruling at Westminster Magistrate’s Court in London, which had ruled that Modi was fit to be returned to India to face the charges of defrauding the Punjab National Bank of more than USD 1 billion as well as further charges of money laundering, witness intimidation and destruction of evidence.
Modi’s lawyers had long argued that their client suffered from severe depression and would not receive adequate medical care if he is imprisoned at the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai pending his court appearance.
They stated that his mental health condition had deteriorated further during his incarceration at Wandsworth Prison in South London following his arrest in London in March 2019 and the strict restrictions placed on prisons during the Covid-19 pandemic.
They had also introduced several medical experts to give evidence that Modi was at high risk of suicide.
In his appeal to the High Court, Modi’s lawyer Edward Fitzgerald QC, argued that the ruling by Westminster Magistrate’s Court judge Samuel Goozee would violate Modi’s human rights as set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.
Modi, once the jeweller to some of the biggest stars of Hollywood and Bollywood, stands accused of defrauding the state-owned Punjab National Bank of more than USD 2 billion through a carefully orchestrated scam involving dummy corporations and directors.
He is also charged by the Indian government with witness intimidation and destruction of evidence.
He has been held at Wandsworth Prison in London since his arrest in the British capital in March 2019.
Modi’s extradition was ordered by judge Samuel Goozee sitting at Westminster Magistrate’s Court in London in February. (ANI)
High profile fugitives like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi are facing deportation from foreign lands back into India to face trials. They will be lodged at Arthur Road Jail … A special report
Spread over six acres, the Arthur Road jail in Maharashtra is one of the largest prisons in the world. Indian jails were notorious for their British image. But, they are not in the list of worst in the world. None of them are featured in a recent survey among the worst prisons in the world.
The Arthur Road Jail, the state’s largest central prison, stands rather tall among the central jails in terms of prison conditions. High profile and high-risk prisoners are expected to be lodged in the jail making the job of the department all the trickier because they not only have to ensure better conditions but also enhance security measures. Such individuals are at a high risk anywhere.
Fugitive Nirav Modi facing extradition from London
High profile fugitives like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi are facing deportation from foreign lands back into India to face trials. They will be lodged at Arthur Road Jail.
Former Chief of Maharashtra Prisons (2012-15), Meeran Chadha Borwankar said the safety and security of high-risk prisoners are top priority for the authorities. It is natural that central jails like ARJ cannot keep any stone unturned to ensure this.
Both Nirav Modi and Mallya, if extradited to India, are proposed to be housed in Arthur Road jail’s Barrack number 12. Videos of the barrack were submitted to the court during both the trials to underline that its fulfills standard recommendations, ensuring natural light, ventilation, a western style bathroom attached to the cell, and a plasma TV set.
In Mallya’s case, the British judge, while ordering his extradition in 2018, had expressed satisfaction about the cell in which Mallya was proposed to be lodged.
Barrack number 12 is a ground-plus-one structure with eight cells on each floor. There are attached bathrooms, and inmates are provided with a mattress, pillow, and bedsheet, along with melamine crockery.
The barracks where Mallya and Nirav Modi are proposed to be lodged if they are extradited, are separate from the other parts of the overcrowded jail.
The 300 sft. cell is almost like an apartment with fresh soothing white colour painting, French windows for ventilation and view, toilet and shower. The cell has been maintained since 2019 by the jail authorities expecting fugitive Modi’s extradition by the UK. This shows the sincerity of authorities in terms of a paradigm shift in the perspective of crime and its treatment.
It is also heartening that jails in India today have risen much above inhuman colonial British traditions of “confinement and punishment,” Borwankar told a local newspaper.
Also, the brighter side of this is also that pure concerns of “human rights and justice go hand in hand”, added Borwankar.
There was a time just a decade and a half back when prisons were in very bad shape and officers had to expend a lot of energy to maintain them both physically and discipline wise. But things have drastically changed today.
Managing a prison is a complex matter, with each decision threatened by a potential crime, animosity amongst inmates, legal compliances and complexities. A survey conducted among the worst prisons of the world including the US, China, Russia, among other countries indicates the plight of prisoners. Indian jails are not on the list. Prominent in the list are:
01 Venezuela, La Sabaneta Prison
02 Russia, Black Dolphin Prison
03 Rwanda, Gitarama Central Prison
04 North Korea, Camp 22
05 Tbilisi, Georgia Gldani Prison
06 Lima, Peru San Juan de Lurigancho
07 Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Black Beach Prison
08 Kenya, Nairobi Prison
09 Russia, Butyrka Prison
10 Turkey, Diyarbakir Prison
11 Venezuela, El Rodeo Prison
12 El Salvador, Penal de Ciudad Barrios Prison
13 Argentina, Mendoza Prison
14 New York, Rikers Island
15 Syria, Tadmor Military Prison
16 Paris, France, La Santé Prison
17 Colorado, United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility
18 São Paulo, Brazil, Carandiru Penitentiary
19 Nairobi, Kenya, Kamiti Maximum Security Prison
20 Vologda, Russia, Pyatak Prison
21 California, San Quentin State Prison
22 New York, Attica Correctional Facility
23 Argentina, Mendoza Prison
24 California, Pelican Bay State Prison
25 Thailand, Bang Kwang Prison
26 Tibet, Drapchi Prison
27 Cuba, Guantanamo Bay Prison
28 California, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary
29 Mississippi, Parchman Farm State Penitentiary
30 Arizona, Tent City or Maricopa County Prison
Prison Conditions
Maharashtra jails do not figure in the top seven most populated jails in the country according to the latest union government’s e-prisons data. The state houses the largest number of jails in the country (150 as per 2014 NCRB figures) and the second-largest number of Central Prisons after Madhya Pradesh.
With a total of 3288 inmates, the Arthur Road Jail only appears overcrowded. It has the largest number of inmates among jails in the state, but a majority of them- 2995 under trial and merely 30 are convicts according to the latest jail figures supplied by the media cell of ARC. The release rate is also arguably high because among the inmates a considerable number do not face serious charges. However, due to the Supreme Court’s intervention to a sou motu petition considering the second wave of Covid 19 pandemic, decongestion has now taken place.
This is a sign of an active society and aware citizens and a healthy democratic system that exists in the country. Today the prisons in India are being decongested considering the second Covid-19 wave.
The Supreme Court ruled on the 7th of this May as follows:
“All the State Governments to instruct its police officers not to automatically arrest when a case under Section 498-A IPC is registered but to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest parameters laid down above towing 41 CrPC…;”
So much so, that the entire high profile ARJ was Covid free as of June 1, 2021, according to the ‘Covid 19 Report’ published by the Maharashtra Prison Department, Ministry of Home, Government of Maharashtra. Prevention of congestion is also being ensured by the apex court by ordering magistrates not to “authorise mention casually and mechanically”.
Nirav Modi who had 14 days to appeal the decision has approached the High Court of appeals on the 28th April 2021 to appeal the decisions made by the lower court judge as well as the home secretary Priti Patel, reports Poonam Joshi
The fugitive diamond dealer Nirav Modi, who is wanted in India for allegedly defrauding Punjab National Bank (PNB) out of an estimated $2 billion has filed a permission to appeal in the UK high court against his extradition to India.
Modi, 50, who was arrested in March 2019 and has been held in the Wandsworth prison in south London ever since, was ordered to be extradited by the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel on the 15th April 2021.
Westminster Magistrate’s Court’s judge Sam Goozee made a decision on February 25, finding Nirav Modi guilty on all the charges saying that the fugitive businessman had a case to answer for and should be returned to India.
The Indian government alleges that Modi and his associates colluded with officials at the state-owned Punjab National Bank to defraud the bank out of more than USD 1.4 billion by using a credit facility known as Letters of Undertaking, a form of bank guarantee to facilitate international transactions.
The court had been told that the proceeds of the fraud were then laundered through a series of shell companies manned by dummy directors and located in Dubai and Hong Kong. Modi is also charged with the destruction of evidence and intimidating witnesses.
Modi who had 14 days to appeal the decision has approached the High Court of appeals on the 28th April 2021 to appeal the decisions made by the lower court judge as well as the home secretary Priti Patel.
It will be decided by the court of appeals judge whether or not to grant the permission to appeal which is done on papers.
Modi is likely to argue on the decision of his mental health issue which was dismissed by lower court judge Goozee saying he was not satisfied by evidence submitted by the defence about Modi’s mental and emotional health and that he was satisfied that he was fit to plead once returned to India.
If he is successful in obtaining the permission then the appeal will be heard by a single judge or division bench. Modi will need to demonstrate a strong reason to initiate the hearings for his appeal. The entire process can take a good few months given the covid crisis around the world, especially in India where Modi is sought. If its rejected UK will have 28 days to extradite him. (ANI)
