UAE obliged to charge Guptas with money laundering – Lamola

• Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said South Africa’s extradition agreement with the United Arab Emirates required them to prosecute the Gupta family on money laundering charges.
• Ramora took part in an “urgent” debate over the failed extradition of the Gupta brothers Rajesh and Atul, insisting South Africa had done everything it could to bring them to justice.
• GOOD MP Brett Herron, who had called for a debate in April, said a lack of urgency had become a hallmark of the government, with the extradition failure an example.

Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola told the National Assembly on Tuesday that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had an obligation to charge the Gupta family with money laundering.

He is taking part in an “urgent” debate over South Africa’s failure to extradite brothers Rajesh and Atul Gupta from the UAE, nearly two months after South African authorities learned his application had failed.

Guptas’ extradition hearing was held in a UAE court in February and South Africa’s extradition application was rejected, but South African authorities were only informed of the developments in April, days later, on April 11, when GOOD MP Brett Herron filed his The request was debated by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.

There was a complete lack of urgency in treating his “urgent” debates, and that didn’t go away with Herron.

He said the matter had been thoroughly discussed in South Africa, and those elected to hold the government accountable – MPs – had to twiddle their thumbs.

A lack of urgency has become a defining characteristic of the government, he said.

A canceled arrest warrant is believed to have been filed in the extradition request, Herron said, a “scrupulous failure that exposed a deeper lack of urgency”.

He referred to the Zondo report, which revealed state capture.

“The Gupta brothers, rightly or wrongly, became the poster child for so-called state occupation,” he said.

“Convincing South Africans that the R1 billion investment in the Zondo Commission is inextricably linked to their prosecution.”

read | SA can’t appeal UAE’s ‘inexplicable’ decision not to hand over Guptas

Other opposition MPs were also less than happy with the way the government had handled the extradition request, but Lamora insisted the South African government had done all it should have done and has been doing so since news of Guptas’ extradition broke. I’m doing forest.

He described the criticism as a “cheap political score” by MPs who “wanted to blind South Africans to what South Africa was doing” to extradite Gupta.

UAE law is a “unique combination” of Sharia law with Egyptian and French civil law, he said.

“It’s not like our court, it’s not an open court system. It happened and we were notified on the date South Africans were notified.”

He said the South African government had not made “stupid mistakes”.

“We didn’t screw up this extradition request either,” he said.

“Extradition cases cannot be denied just because of technicalities. That’s not what La Morra said; it’s the UN Convention against Corruption because the UN understands that countries try to hide behind technicalities in denying extradition requests.

“Before we submitted the extradition request, there was cooperation between the two central authorities, including the prosecution authorities of both countries. The UAE authorities confirmed and certified that the documents we submitted in the UAE complied with the extradition agreement.”

read | Not even their mugshots: How the UAE kept South Australia in the dark about the Guptas

The minister said the UAE prosecutors filed the application in their court on behalf of South Africa.

“Where is the incompetence of the South African government?”

He said it was standard practice to ask the country that submitted the extradition request for lost documents.

La Mora said: “Don’t shock the requesting country with the result of the court!”

He added that under the bilateral extradition agreement, the UAE is obliged to charge Guptas with money laundering, as their courts have said they are capable of doing so.

Ramora said:

But they were released and released without charge, failing to respect the content of this bilateral agreement. So, where is the incompetence of the South African government?

He reiterated that South Africa provided all the documents they needed, including a valid arrest warrant.

During his speech, Lamola was interrupted by recently sworn-in EFF MP Mzwanele Manyi, who is also a spokesman for the JG Zuma Foundation, who raised a bogus point of order.

“I will not be surprised when venerable Manyi catches [sic] How we feel when we debate the Guptas. Ja, this is public knowledge,” Lamola said.

The party that Manyi now represents in parliament called him Gupta’s “stony dog” in 2017.