UAE court did not order Christian Michel's extradition to India

Asked by the UAE government in the last week of August whether Agusta Westland middleman Christian Michel, a UK national, can be extradited, a local court gave an answer in the affirmative. However, the order was in Arabic. 

It seems for the want of better translators, the order got interpreted in a manner that seemed the Enforcement Directorate had hit gold. The ED has been taking help from  language experts from JNU, revealed an official.

Indian investigating agencies who received the order late Tuesday night could not contain their excitement. A section in the investigating agencies was quickly briefed that the court has paved way for Michel’s extradition to India and the media went ballistic.

In an election year, it would mean a high-value achievement for the Modi government which had promised to bring back economic offenders to face the law. The flurry, which lasted just a day, however, also consumed the bickering that had been going on between the government and the Congress over the controversial Rs 59,000 crore purchase of Rafale warplanes. Who would have bothered about any other news if the process of Michel’s extradition had started?

The next morning, when the court order was translated fully and investigators did due diligence by studying it minutely, it came to light that it was a communication between the local government and the court in the form of an opinion. This communication was also not formally shared with India. There is expected to be some embarrassment for the investigating agencies given the fact that India’s Embassy in the UAE maintained that it had not received any information from the local authorities about a move to extradite Michel. 

Meanwhile, probe agencies have clarified that their efforts will continue to extradite the middleman who was arrested last year. Michel is out on bail and is missing since. The officials said on Wednesday that the development in the UAE court is a positive development for India as the UAE’s prosecution wing is fighting India’s case.

Even though the court had not pronounced the extradition, it had opened doors for India’s pending request with that country. The legal issues will need to be examined before anything can be said further, said an investigator.

Incidentally, the development comes ahead of the ED preparing to file a third chargesheet in the Agusta scam case. Michel is one of the three middlemen being probed by the ED and CBI, besides Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa in the Rs 3,600-crore VVIP chopper deal case.