NEW DELHI: Christian James Michel, a Dubai-based Englishman wanted in India in connection with kickbacks in the AgustaWestland helicopter scam, is likely to be extradited soon to India, say reports.
The Dubai Cassation Court, the city’s highest court, on Monday upheld the appellate court’s decision to extradite the 54-year-old Briton to the Indian authorities despite his not guilty plea.
India had filed the extradition request before the Dubai Public Prosecution in February last year. Michel was arrested, and when the case came up for hearing in the Dubai court in July, he pleaded not guilty. In September, the Dubai Appeal Court approved the extradition request, but this too, was challenged by Michel’s lawyers.
But on Monday, Dubai’s Cassation court rejected Michel’s lawyer Bin Suwaidan’s argument that the case was politically motivated and that his client would be mistreated by the Indian authorities, and upheld the appellate court’s decision.
The UAE had ratified an extradition treaty with India in May 2013.Michel is alleged to have received 30 million Euro as kickbacks in return for influencing Indian officials to sign off on the `3,600 crore AgustaWestland contract for 12 helicopters for VVIPs.
The chopper deal was signed in 2010. But in February 2013, the CEO of Agusta Westland Bruno Spagnolini and the chairman of its parent company Finmeccanica Giuseppe Orsi were arrested in Italy on charges of bribing middlemen to secure the deal, and former IAF chief SP Tyagi was named as one of the beneficiaries. One official said that there were still some legal issues to be untangled, and that he “wouldn’t hold his breath” till Michel was brought to India.