The Hindu : Quattrocchi case enters new phase

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 07, 2003

International

International

Quattrocchi case enters new phase

By P. S. Suryanarayana

KUALA LUMPUR Jan. 6. India's chequered, yet sustained, efforts to secure the extradition of

Ottavio Quattrocchi, Italian businessman wanted in connection with the Bofors payoff investigations and trial in New Delhi, acquired a new qualitative dimension today, even as the Malaysian Court of Appeal heard arguments on a relevant petition before reserving judgment for a future date.

Two Malaysian prosecutors, Kamarulhisham Kamaruddin and Cyrus V. Das, representing India in the absence of a bilateral extradition treaty, argued that Mr. Quattrocchi, who had now gone out of the jurisdiction of the apex Court of Appeal here, could yet be subjected to the constitutional

jurisprudence and legal regime of Malaysia where he was residing, when New Delhi first sought his extradition.

Mr. Quattrocchi left Malaysia on December 14 last after the High Court here had, a day earlier, set its face firmly against his extradition on the ground that India had not outlined any formal charges that could stand scrutiny under the relevant local laws. The context of today's hearings was a "notice of motion" that Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, counsel for Mr. Quattrocchi, had moved against an ex-parte order that the Court of Appeal passed on December 16. The apex judicial forum, arguably not the final arbiter on such matters as extradition, had ruled on that day that the Italian national's passport be impounded, pending a hearing on the "notice of appeal" from the Malaysia-India camp against the earlier High Court verdict that there was no justification to sanction Mr. Quattrocchi's extradition. The verdict confirmed a lower Session Court order of December 2, turning down India's plea for his extradition at the stage of ``preliminary objections" itself.

Mr. Shafee today wanted that the non-enforceable and "academic" order regarding the Italian national's passport be set aside and that the Malaysia-India "appeal" against the High Court's ruling be quashed. The three-member bench of the Court of Appeal, which heard the latest petition, was presided over by Justice Hamid Mohamad, and consisted of two other judges, Hashim Yosof and Rahmah Hussein. With Justice Hamid engaging the lawyers on both sides with interactive interventions, the hearings moved to a higher plane of issue-specific arguments.

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