South Africa has formally filed a request with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to extradite the Gupta brothers accused of orchestrating large-scale corruption in the country.
This was confirmed by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola and the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Bathohi during a briefing on Monday afternoon.
“A request was received from the National Director of Public Prosecutions for the extradition of the Gupta brothers from the United Arab Emirates to the Republic of South Africa to stand trial on charges of fraud, money laundering,” Justice Minister Ronald Lamola told reporters on Monday in Pretoria.
“We can confirm that an extradition request has been duly submitted to the UAE central authority.”
South Africa had 60 days from the date of the arrest to submit a formal extradition application in respect of the treaty between the two countries.
Bathohi said the submission of the application was being processed: “The submission of the formal application request for the arrest and extradition of the Gupta brothers is an important milestone in the NPA’s commitment to hold accountable perpetrators of state capture and to uphold the rule of law. It reaffirms our resolve to be the lawyers for the people and to seek collective justice for our country.”
She said they would try to ensure that justice is served. “We cannot guarantee that of course that there will be a conviction, but what we can guarantee is that as the prosecuting authority we will do everything possible to ensure that the prospects of successful prosecution and conviction is extremely high, that’s as far as we can take it.”
Charges against Rajesh and Atul Gupta relate to a R24.9 million tender that was issued by the Free State Department of Agriculture to a company called Nulane Investment which belongs to Gupta-linked businessman Iqbal Sharma.
Sharma id currently behind bars and was denied bail as he was considered to be a flight risk.
Source: News24, Eyewitness News, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, image from Twitter
