The justice minister and head of prosecutions are cautiously optimistic about fast-tracked help from the United Arab Emirates with extraditions after the belated ratification of treaties this week.
On Thursday, the UAE ratified two treaties on extraditions and mutual legal assistance with SA. This follows SA ratifying them in 2018.
UAE ambassador Mahash Saeed Salem Alhameli, justice minister Ronald Lamola and NPA head advocate Shamila Batohi met to “exchange ratification instruments” on Thursday. The step is the product of talks between the countries that began in February 2010. The treaties come into force on July 10.
“What we can say to South Africans is that we should not expect that the people of interest will board the first plane to SA tomorrow morning,” Lamola said at a press briefing on Friday.
“The ratification of the two treaties symbolises a change of course and co-operation, a change of heart, and we are hopeful that a new dawn has begun.”
SA has for some time been trying to have the Gupta family extradited from the UAE and also to get some legal assistance in terms of their financial statements.
The Gupta brothers are at the centre of state capture allegations in SA and are said to have scored billions of rand in contracts and tenders from various government departments and state-owned enterprises. They are said to be currently resident in the UAE
They are alleged to have used their friendship with former president Jacob Zuma and business partnership with his son Duduzane to wield significant influence in SA including the appointment and dismissal of cabinet ministers.
Speaking at the same briefing on Friday, Batohi was cautious.
“We will only know that this is making a difference once our requests for mutual legal assistance are fully executed by the UAE and we get the necessary co-operation, including evidence from the UAE,” she said.
The NPA seeks financial evidence from the UAE, including bank records and statements. “We’ve been waiting for evidence from the UAE, which hopefully we will get very soon given that’s outstanding for more than three years,” added Batohi.
Last week, the NPA's Investigative Directorate announced it was looking to global policing body Interpol to execute arrest warrants on four Gupta family members: Atul Gupta and his wife Chetali and Rajesh Gupta and his wife Arti. They are set to face criminal charges, including fraud, in relation to the Vrede dairy scam.
Alhameli's undertaking to press his UAE compatriots to respond to “all” SA's requests has raised Lamola's hope. “We do expect co-operation going forward because it’s a commitment we have received from the ambassador yesterday (Thursday),” he said.
On the face of it, the diplomatic move improves relations. However, an existing UN convention from the 2000s, which was ratified by both countries, provides a legal foundation for extradition and shared legal help. To date, SA's attempts to obtain UAE help based on the UN convention have been fruitless.
Lamola noted the lack of co-operation between SA and the UAE despite provisions in the UN's Convention Against Corruption. Article 44 of the convention says if a country makes extradition dependent upon a treaty and no such a treaty exists, the convention may be used as the legal basis for extradition.
In other words, the convention may be used in lieu of an extradition treaty. Further, the convention notes countries “shall, subject to their domestic law, endeavour to expedite extradition procedures and to simplify evidentiary requirements relating thereto in respect of any offence to which this article applies.”
SA ratified the convention in 2004, followed by the UAE in 2006.
“There’s always been sufficient legitimate ways in which we could have co-operated,” Batohi said.
Both Lamola and Batohi were careful to manage public expectations about extraditions from the UAE to SA. “If there was any thought that those that we are seeking to face justice in SA would be on the next plane to SA — I think, to be clear — that certainly is a process will take some time,” Batohi said.
Director-general in the justice department, Doc Mashabane, asserted SA and the UAE enjoyed cordial, healthy and strong relations. “It is the nature of diplomacy that there will be difficult moments in relationships between states,” he said. “We continue ourselves [to] receive requests for mutual legal assistance from the UAE and we are duty bound by law and international law to assist, as we expect them to do.”
Lamola said ratification of the treaties would focus co-operation between SA and the UAE. “This just strengthens the hand of the two countries at a level of bilateral co-operation,” he said.
Batohi predicted a protracted legal, then political process would follow the arrest of suspects facing extradition from the UAE to SA. Any country's ultimate surrender of a suspect depends on political will, she said.
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