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South Africa’s legal authorities are counting on politicians for help after concluding that the UAE government was duplicity in its handling of South Africa’s application to extradite the Guptas.
Lawyers for the Guptas attended three secret court hearings on the extradition in Dubai — the South African government was excluded and not informed, they said. It took 37 days for the UAE authorities to notify the Pretoria court that his extradition request had been rejected.
By then, South Africa’s 30-day deadline to appeal the decision had passed. The delay also gave the Guptas time to skip Dubai before Interpol issued a new red notice calling for their arrest.
Officials said the UAE’s legal reasons for refusing extradition were bogus and they were convinced the decision was political. Some legitimate sources suspect the money changed hands.
But, in any case, they say the case is now in the hands of South African executives, who should demand explanations and remedies from the UAE – possibly “actions” by the UAE’s ambassador to South Africa, MSSM Alhameli.
South African officials said the government must at least ask the UAE to forgive Pretoria for missing a deadline to appeal the court ruling – arguing that the UAE authorities violated the extradition treaty between the two countries by failing to notify Pretoria of the court ruling in a timely manner. .
The action was baffling, an established diplomatic practice that summons foreign diplomats for harsh reprimands or complaints. Reliable sources told Daily Maverick that the UAE ambassador will be dismissed. However, presidential spokesman Vincent Magvia later said there would be no disagreements, although there would be “consultations”.
Alhameli himself told Daily Maverick that if he has or will leave, he will come back to us and let us know. But he never did.
Justice and Corrections Secretary Ronald Lamorra. (Photo: Darren Stewart/Gallo Images)
However, a senior South African official told Daily Maverick that there could be a division of labour, although this would likely be done by the departmental deputy director-general rather than the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) Naledi Pandor. This relatively low-level intervention suggests that Pretoria may be attempting to defuse the problem – although Attorney-General Ronald Lamora expressed outrage, saying “this level of non-cooperation is unprecedented” and that South Australia “is being denied justice”.
A major pressure point that South Africa could exploit, officials said, is that the UAE is trying to escape the gray list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is notorious for being a money laundering haven – one of the allegations against the Gupta brothers. one. South Africa itself was graylisted in February, partly because of lax efforts to combat money laundering.
South Africa is likely to raise the FATF issue in Washington at a gathering of finance ministers at the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank in the coming days, sources said.
There are expectations that the US government may also be putting pressure on the UAE on South Africa’s behalf, having put the Gupta brothers on its global Magnitsky sanctions list a few years ago – although this comes at an awkward moment, with Washington increasingly annoyed by South Africa Close relationship with Russia and refusal to condemn its invasion of Ukraine.
The Gupta brothers are interviewed by City News at the New Age newspaper offices in Midland, Johannesburg, South Africa, March 4, 2011. (Photo: Gallo Images/City Press/Muntu Vilakazi)
Another pressure point that legal experts suggest South Africa should use is to lodge a complaint with the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption in Washington at the end of the year. Both South Africa and the United Arab Emirates are signatories to the convention, which obliges signatory countries to extradite or prosecute suspects.
One of the reasons why the Dubai court rejected South Africa’s extradition request was that money laundering is also a crime in the UAE, so the UAE can prosecute the Guptas brothers on its own. But legal officials said the UAE has given no indication of its intention to prosecute the Guptas — and in fact may even make them leave the country.
Another possible political and diplomatic pressure point is that the UAE has applied to join the BRICS – the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa bloc that has become increasingly important in countering the West. Several other countries have applied to join, and those applications are expected to be considered at the next BRICS summit, to be hosted by South Africa in August – giving it more say in decisions.
But a well-informed observer cautioned that the UAE application “is a double-edged sword. Too many people have been pissed off by what happened, Putin’s visit, etc. That could be an important political aspect of the equation.”
He was referring to the growing controversy over whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the BRICS summit. Pretoria has officially invited him, but as a member of the International Criminal Court, Pretoria may also be obliged to arrest him, because the court has issued an arrest warrant for accusing him of complicity in the abduction of Ukrainian children to Russia.
So it’s unclear what the diplomatic fallout from the fiasco will ultimately be. A senior South African diplomatic source insisted, “This issue will be bracketed and kept separate from our strong bilateral relationship. Remember the UAE is seven semi-autonomous emirates and the Guptas are in Dubai and we are working with Liaison with the UAE Ministry of Justice, which must interact with the Emirate of Dubai.
“They have a complex system that our authorities don’t seem to appreciate, and even less understand. It’s also a sensitive issue for them internally. So the overall bilateral relationship won’t be affected. They’re keen on our partnership, to push them into Africa in a big way, and we’re part of their bigger picture.” DM168
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, available nationwide for R25.
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