Tim Elliott
Welcome to Lawgical the UAE’s first and still the only regular legal podcast. My name is Tim Elliott and I’m here with the expert, managing partner of the Dubai -based legal firm HPL, Yamalova and Plewka That is Ludmila Yamalova. Nice to see you. Now, this episode is extradition. It’s all about the drama, the stuff of governments, blockbuster.
Ludmila Yamalova
Good to see you too, Tim. Thanks for being here as always.
Tim Elliott
spy thrillers, I guess. Extradition is a topic that is often in the media. The UAE is frequently mentioned in the context of extradition. Ludmila in whatever newspapers or media you read online. But let’s start with what extradition actually means.
Ludmila Yamalova
Sure, and you are right. Extradition has been a hot topic recently in all sorts of news. But at a high level, extradition is defined as it’s a form of judicial cooperation between countries by which one country will surrender to another country, a person who is either accused or convicted under the requestingcountry’s laws for that person to either attend trial or to serve a sentence. In simple words, it is an agreement between two or more countries to cooperate in connection with the return or transfer of the accused to the requesting country. So the UAE…
Tim Elliott
So what’s the UAE stance or the legal framework, if you like, on extradition?
Ludmila Yamalova
The UAE has a fairly developed and fairly well settled concept or legal framework for extradition. And in general, extradition in the UAE is governed by a series of laws. One is a bilateral extradition agreements, meaning agreements between two countries, or multilateral agreements, which are agreements between multiple countries, as well as the UAE federal law number 39.
as well as the UAE Federal Law Number 39 of 2006 regarding international judicial cooperation on criminal matters, which is otherwise referred as extradition law. The list is very long, and it’s getting longer with every year passing.
Tim Elliott
So what countries have bilateral extradition agreements with the UAE? How long is the list, I think I’m asking.
Ludmila Yamalova
Some of the perhaps more notable countries with whom the UAE has signed bilateral agreements are countries such as Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Denmark, most recently the Netherlands in 2021, Ukraine, Australia, China, India, Iran, and so on and so forth. So the list is quite long and it’s getting longer with every year passing.
Ludmila Yamalova
So the most notable example of a multilateral agreement is the Riyadh Arab Convention regarding judicial cooperation, which was signed in 1983. And this particular multilateral agreement includes countries, I mean, all of the GCC countries in the Middle Eastern states, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Algeria.
Bahrain, Iraq, and Tunisia, among other countries. That’s why it’s called the multilateral agreement versus the bilateral agreement where the agreement is only between, for example, the UAE and Italy, the UAE and Russia, the UAE and France. So this is an agreement to which many countries are signatories at the same time.
Tim Elliot
What happens in cases when there isn’t an extradition agreement between two countries or a number of countries?
Ludmila Yamalova
In those cases where there is no specific either bilateral or multilateral agreement for judicial cooperation between the countries, those kinds of requests that are subject to the UAE’s extradition law. And that’s the federal number 39 of 2006.
Tim Elliott
Okay, in general terms, extradition requests are subject to what a number of requirements in terms of, I guess, documentation, first of all, and the underlying
Ludmila Yamalova
Indeed, and under the UAE extradition law, which is once again the federal law number 39 of 2006, the UAE may accept an extradition request upon the following conditions. One is, for example, the extradition request must be based on the crime that is punishable by the law of the requesting country by at least one year of imprisonment or a stricter punishment.
Ludmila Yamalova
The second requirement is that the extradition request is for the accused individual whose remaining sentence time is at least six months. Also, there is no requirement for the crime or the act to be considered a crime in both countries, including in the UAE. That’s important to note. Then the elements that constitute such a crime do not have to be the same, nor does the name of the crime has to be the same in order for the extradition request to be valid.
Ludmila Yamalova
And this, by the way, is set out by the UAE extradition law and in particular Article 7, which sets out the requirements upon which the UAE would consider an extradition.
Tim Elliott
Let’s assume there’s an extradition request against an individual. How would you challenge a request like that?
Ludmila Yamalova
So extradition requests in the UAE can be challenged on several grounds. Some of these grounds depend on the terms and conditions of the extradition agreement or the laws with the requesting country. But some of the more notable and specific reasons for challenging an extradition request include, for example, procedural issues, which means that, for example, the requesting country did not provide sufficient documentation or
proper translation of documents to substantiate the request, such as certified copies of the applicable laws, copies of the arrest warrant, and or court judgment. And this in particular is important for the UAE because the UAE for the time being is not yet signed on to the or the member of the Hague Convention, which means any foreign document that is used in the UAE must be properly translated and also attested and or
go through the up -of -steel process. So it’s quite an extended process in terms of just legalizing any document that is considered by the UAE government that’s coming from a foreign government. So that’s the procedural reason or procedural ground on the basis of which the extradition request ultimately may not be relied on or may not be enforced. The other ground is lack of jurisdiction. This is, for example,is when the requesting country does not have jurisdiction over the requested person. So let’s say a country, France, for example, wants to request an individual who is based in the UAE, who is, for example, an Australian citizen, for that individual to be extradited to France. So there is an issue, there may be an issue of jurisdiction.
Another notable ground is if the punishment in the requesting country is prohibited by the laws of the UAE. And so these are some of the grounds, the procedural grounds, that are in addition to the substantive requirements of the underlying crime, which must be a serious crime and subject to the extradition request. In other words, let’s say a misdemeanor or some kind of a smaller…
or more nebulous crime in the UAE would not be qualified or deemed as qualified for the extradition request because it does have to be a serious crime.
When are extraditions not allowed, Ludmilla? What are any exceptions?
Ludmila Yamalova
Yes, there’s a whole series of exceptions. Some of the more notable exceptions when the requested person will not be extradited or when the laws do not allow for that person to be extradited include circumstances such as, for example, if the requested person is a citizen of the UAE, so another country is now requesting for a UAE national to be extradited to them, that request is considered to be improper. Or, for example, if
the crime under which the person is being or the person that’s being subject to, in fact, would actually be subject to the UAE laws. Also, if the crime is a political crime. But this is important to highlight that in this context, political crimes do not include, for example, terrorist crimes or war crimes or genocide or crimes of aggression against the government. So political crimes here,
meant more like politically motivated claims that obviously exclude these more serious international crimes. Another exception is if the crime is limited to offenses against military obligations. So for example, somebody is required, is obligated to serve military time or service or training in their home country and they left the country, run away from that obligation. And now on the back of that, there is a
an extradition request. So that is one exception under which the UAE would not extradite an individual. Another example is if the crime relates to a person’s ethnic or religious affiliation or his nationality or political opinions. Yet another exception is if the person was subject to investigation or trial procedures in the UAE for the same crime. So in that case, the UAE would not extradite the person.
Another example is if the person was previously tried for the same crime and there’s either basically the acquitted or there has been since then the person has been acquitted or for example that the conviction has already been fully served in a different country. Also if the criminal lawsuit for example is terminated or if the sentence is expired by virtue of such limitation.
And finally, one of the more notable, but perhaps not unexpected, exceptions is if the UAE, for example, believes that the requesting country may subject that person to a form of torture or some kind of inhumane treatment or a much more severe punishment that would perhaps not be so much appropriate for that particular crime.
Tim Elliott
Ludmila, we mentioned at the top of the recording today, the podcast today that, you know, extradition cases are often mentioned in the media. They make for really interesting reading, meaty reading. It’s all espionage and spy stuff, of course. So let’s get to the details. Any recent examples where the UAE’s dealt with extradition requests?
Ludmila Yamalova
Yes, indeed, there’s a whole series of such examples. And as you rightfully said, they all are fairly recent. Just in the last three years, the UAE has been quite active and playing a quite involved role in extraditing a number of individuals that had claimed the UAE as their home base for a while. And the UAE ultimately at least either considered extradition requests and decided to either extradite or rejected extradition requests.
One of the more notable examples that had been discussed and profiled in the media quite a bit is an extradition request from Denmark, where Denmark requested extradition of its national in 2022 in a case involving tax fraud. In that case, Dubai courts accepted Denmark’s extradition request on the basis of the extradition agreement between Denmark and the UAE.
Another example included another European country, which is France. In 2021, France had made an extradition request to the UAE in the case involving an individual who had been accused in France for drug dealing and money laundering. In that case, once again, Dubai courts accepted France’s extradition request. And ultimately, while the accused appealed the decision,
several times, it was dismissed and ultimately the extradition request was upheld by the court of cassation and the person was extradited. So, and in 2022, I guess that was a fairly active year for the UAE. There was another European country that had made an extradition request. This time it was Italy. And in this case, Italy had requested extradition of its national who was accused of homicide.
Once again, the UAE Court of Cassation, and so this decision too was appealed by the accused several times, but ultimately the UAE Court of Cassation accepted Italy’s extradition request. And while the accused appealed several times alleging expiration of the statute of limitation, by the way, and the harsh nature of the punishment in Italy for committed homicide, the…
the Court of Cassation rejected the appeal and the individual once again was extradited. Again, in 2022, Albania requested extradition of the individual who was accused of murder and illegal firearms. And in that case as well, the UAE courts approved the request on the basis of the UAE extradition law.
even though there was no bilateral extradition agreement between the two countries. So this is an example of the UAE actually applying its extradition law instead of just relying on the bilateral agreement between the countries to extradite an individual that had previously been residing in the UAE. Then another case in 2023, perhaps most recently, was from South Africa.
and in which case the country of South Africa requested an extradition of two individuals who were accused of money laundering, fraud, and corruption. In that case, however, Dubai courts rejected South Africa’s extradition request based on insufficient documentation.
which did not meet the conditions in the extradition agreement between the two countries. So this is an example where although there’s a bilateral agreement between both South Africa and the UAE specifically for this kind of judicial cooperation on the basis of which the UAE should almost by default extradite the person, the local courts had deemed that the South African government’s extradition request did not procedurally meet all the requirements.
to justify extradition. And as we discussed earlier, the procedure requirements are fairly, perhaps robust, but not unsurprising, whereby the requesting government has to not only submit a document from their own local court, but has to translate that document, and legally translate the document, attest all the decisions, either.
the Apple steal or legally attest the whatever supporting documents, but it’s a fairly robust process in terms of what the UAE government would consider sufficient evidence to justify extradition. So this was one example where that did not work. There was another example early in the 2021.
not too far distant future or past rather, it was also a decision coming out of the court of cassation. So it had been appealed several times and in this case it included the country of Russia. And in that case, the UAE does actually have a bilateral agreement with Russia for extradition. And so in this case, the government of Russia had requested from the individual to be extradited.
or on the base of allegation that he had bribed a government official in Russia, which is a crime that the UAE considers to be a serious crime. So kind of met that element of the UAE’s own extradition laws. And then the Russian government issued an arrest order for this accused. And then on the base of the arrest order requested for the UAE, for the person to be extradited. And as part of its extradition request, it actually did substantiate.
the request by virtue of a letter from the Russian embassy stating that accused should be extradited in the letter from the assistant attorney general to the minister of justice stating that extradition is not based on any of political reasons or religious reasons or any kind of racial reasons for example which would have been the grounds to reject extradition.
And also it submitted just a memo from the Russian police, which included prosecution’s case and the police report. And then also the statement of claim, the arrest order, and attested copies of the related criminal code sections. And then also personal information of the accused. So as you can see, just from this example of the list of documents that a government…
a foreign government would substantiate the extradition request by, that’s basically the level of detail that the UAE government looks at in deciding whether an extradition request has been properly substantiated. So in this case, the UAE courts, the highest court ruled that the accused should be extradited. And although the…
but prior to that, the accused had appealed the case several times, but also the Court of Cassation ultimately rejected the argument that he was being extradited for unprecedented political and religious causes. And the Court of Cassation held that there was no, basically, evidence that that was the case, and that also there was no public interest in, for example, for the UAE to reject extradition on this individual.
So for that reason, ultimately the court decided to extradite this Russian national back to Russia. So these are some of the actual cases, recent cases. Obviously there have been other ones that have been discussed and mentioned in the media in one way or another. But these are the ones where the government, the U .E. government had made a final decision and either extradited the individuals or rejected the extradition request, which was South Africa.
Tim Elliott
Hmm.
Ludmila Yamalova
Now, one case that’s ongoing right now that is quite prominently featured in the media is the one that includes the country of the Netherlands or Holland. And in fact, it’s interesting because the Netherlands is one of the more recent countries with which the UAE signed a bilateral agreement. We earlier spoke about the whole list of all the countries with whom the UAE has a bilateral agreement, but many of them go all the way.
back to the 90s. So for example, with India, the UAE has had bilateral agreements since 1999, and then Iran since 2009, and others with Ukraine, for example, 2012, and Australia 2007 and such. And then Italy was in 2015, but one of the more recent ones was actually the Netherlands, which is only in 2021. So the UAE only signed
bilateral agreement with the Netherlands in 2021. So, and now there is an actual extradition request that is pending from the government of the Netherlands to the UAE to extradite an individual who is a Dutch national who had been accused in the Netherlands of drug dealing and drug trading and ultimately that individual had escaped to
to Russia. And it’s actually why it’s even more interesting because it actually involves a very prominent individual, Quincy Proms, who is a very prominent footballer or football player, who had played first for Holland and then ultimately somehow got perhaps caught up in the wrong crowd. And Holland had accused him of being part of a drug cartel, if you will, and so on the basis of that.
It sounds like, I guess, maybe the accounts can differ, but the individual, this Mr. Proms had escaped to Russia and had been living in Russia for a few years. And so just recently, he was playing for a Russian football team. And so just recently, that particular football team was visiting the UAE. They were playing here. And the UAE government, or the…
the Dutch government found out that the individual was here and there was a red notice for his arrest. So the Netherlands had asked for the UAE government to arrest the individual and send him back. So this is an ongoing case. It’s very, it’s kind of sort of hot off the press, if you will, because it’s happening right now as we’re recording this, which is March 22.
But it’s an interesting example of how there is a very new bilateral agreement with a country, the Netherlands, that is an agreement that is only three years old and it’s just there’s an actual request that had, that had from the Dutch government that had already been shared with other countries by virtue of the Interpol notice. And now the UAE government is reacting rather fast. So what we do know is an individual has already been arrested and…
in the court files from what we’ve been able to see so far. It is the reason for the arrest is stated as extradition request on the basis of drug charges. So the information in other words is sort of travels quite quickly and the government, the UAE, at least in this particular case seems to be responding very fast. So this is an interesting case that is developing before us.
And so it’ll be interesting to see how, you know, how sort of it moves further, but I don’t anticipate for this to have, you know, a different result because there is a specific extradition request and the bilateral extradition treaty between the two countries, which ultimately is supposed to make this kind of process a lot smoother and a lot more efficient. But on this note, also what is important to highlight is how these extradition requests actually
perhaps communicated to other countries. And this example involving Quincy Prom’s is an interesting, perhaps reminder of how in practical terms an extradition request is not only communicated, but also comes into play. And that is, as I mentioned earlier, through the Interpol notice. So, and whenever usually when a foreign government,
accuses someone who’s since run away from the country, they’ll issue what’s called an Interpol notice or a red notice on the basis of which in this Interpol communicates this red notice to the different countries that are subject to the Interpol, so to speak, jurisdictions. And I say so to speak because Interpol is a private entity. And then once there is that, so.
Tim Elliott
Thank you.
Ludmila Yamalova
whenever the red notice is out, whenever that individual, the accused individual travels into one country that is subject to these kind of interpol notices, then that government should by default arrest individual either when they’re coming into the country or when they’re leaving the country. And then as part of their own domestic laws then have to go through the process of extraditing the person in response to the extradition request.
Ludmila Yamalova
But again, it’s usually it’s that red notice, the Interpol red notice that triggers for the foreign government to know that this particular individual, for example, needs to be arrested here. So that’s how the system works. And that’s perhaps one of the reasons why we’re seeing so many cases, extradition cases coming out of the UAE recently. And as we’ve just gone through the list, most of them in the last three years alone.
And that’s because currently the president of the Interpol, in fact, is a UAE national. So maybe that is one of the reasons why the UAE is playing a much more active role now in acting on these Interpol red notices.
Tim Elliott
is fascinating. I had no idea. I’ve heard a little bit about the Netherlands case that you mentioned there. But as you say, it’s ongoing, but lots of interest in that. So effectively, you know, the UAE is cooperating, isn’t it, as a nation. Let’s conclude Ludmilla, what’s your conclusion from what you said today?
Ludmila Yamalova
I think is that we should perhaps expect a lot more of such extradition requests being acted and responded to by various foreign governments, but in particular the UAE. As we know for many different reasons, the UAE has historically been a very popular and comfortable place for people to settle. So it is one of those desirable, one of the few desirable places in the world.
that people, well perhaps not few, but one of several desirable places in the world that people like to call home and it’s been extremely comfortable and it’s very welcoming for many. So perhaps in the past there have been some examples of other individuals who had been accused of crimes in their home countries that would settle in the UAE.
because they thought the UAE would not respond to this extradition request and would not ultimately extradite the individual to their home countries. And so whatever the past might have been, we certainly know that now the UAE, that things have changed significantly and the UAE is a lot more active and if not proactive in working and cooperating with foreign governments to ensure that
these individuals who might have been accused in their home countries and who decide to settle in the UAE will no longer consider the UAE to be a safe haven, if you will, for fugitives. So, and that’s one. And two, as part of this process, that it happens a lot more efficiently and a lot faster. I remember when I came here back in 2008, there were a few extradition requests back then, and they were used often, often sometimes even as by sort of a way of leverage. But,
it was many of them were ultimately not responded to because they were not substantiated either by the requisite documents or because there wasn’t an agreement between specific country. But now fast forward 16 years, I see that even with in terms of the foreign governments making the request, the UAE’s own requirements of what needs to be included in this extradition request file.
are a lot more detailed and a lot more better known. So therefore, whenever the foreign government makes such requests, the file is a lot more ready. And therefore, it allows the UAE government to respond a lot faster. So I anticipate that this trend will continue, that the UAE will not have this reputation of being a safe haven for fugitives from other countries. And I…
I hope that this kind of transparency and this kind of cooperation will continue to help the UAE to build its reputation of being not just a world class to live, but also in terms of safety and the country’s own cooperation and compliance with other foreign governments and foreign countries, which obviously will help continue to build and strengthen the UAE’s reputation in the world.
Tim Elliott
That is lawgical today. Extradition. It was all about extradition. As ever, thanks for listening or watching or both. Thanks as always as well to our legal expert, managing partner, Yamalova and Plewka in Dubai. Ludmila Yamalova, thank you. Find us at L .Y. Law, social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn. All our podcasts are free at lylawyers .com. If you’d like a legal question answered in an episode of lawgical or you need to…
Ludmila Yamalova
Thank you, Tim.
Tim Elliott
talk to a qualified UAE experience legal professional, click contact at lylawyers .com.
