Task team from SA, UAE to discuss new extradition bid for Gupta brothers

A joint technical task team from South Africa and the United Arab Emirates will meet next week to go through requests for extradition made by South Africa afresh. 

This follows a meeting between justice minister Ronald Lamola and his UAE counterpart Abdullah Sultan bin Awad Al Nuaimi in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Lamola announced in April SA’s application to extradite the two “fugitives”, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, from the UAE had been unsuccessful. He said the reasons provided for denying the request were of “a technical nature and fly in the face of the assurances given by Emirati authorities that our requests meet their requirements”. 

On Wednesday, Lamola’s office said the meeting’s objective was focused on enhancing the partnership in mutual legal assistance and extradition matters between the two countries. 

“The meeting also dealt with the Gupta extradition processes. During the meeting, Lamola expressed his concerns about the status of fugitives and the court's findings,” said ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri.

“He suggested measures that could be taken to facilitate successful extradition and emphasised that this was a matter of national interest for South Africa.”

Phiri said the UAE had put in place all the necessary measures to meet its international obligations. 

“After the productive discussions, an agreement was reached to quickly address the issues by setting up a joint task team of prosecutors from both countries.

“A technical joint task team will meet on June 15 to go through fresh extradition requests and the additional mutual legal assistance from South Africa.” 

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